National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006

71 Arrangements for general ophthalmic services

(1) Each Local Health Board must, in accordance with regulations, arrange as respects its area—

(a) with medical practitioners having the prescribed qualifications, and

(b) with optometrists,

for securing sight tests by them of the persons mentioned in subsection (2).

(2) The persons are—

(a) a child,

(b) a person whose resources fall to be treated under the regulations as being less than or equal to his requirements, or

(c) a person of such other description as may be prescribed.

(3) In subsection (2)—

• “child” means—

  (a)

  a person who is under the age of 16 years, or

  (b)

  a person who is under the age of 19 years and receiving qualifying full-time education, and

• “qualifying full-time education” means full-time instruction at a recognised educational establishment or by other means accepted as comparable by the Welsh Ministers.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3)—

(a) “recognised educational establishment” means an establishment recognised by the Welsh Ministers as being, or as comparable to, a school, college or university, and

(b) regulations may prescribe the circumstances in which a person must, or must not, be treated as receiving full-time instruction.

(5) Regulations under this section may direct how a person’s resources and requirements must be calculated and may, in particular, direct that they must be calculated—

(a) by a method set out in the regulations,

(b) by a method described by reference to a method of calculating or estimating income or capital specified in an enactment other than this section or in an instrument made under an Act of Parliament or by reference to such a method but subject to prescribed modifications,

(c) by reference to an amount applicable for the purposes of a payment under an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament, or

(d) by reference to the person’s being or having been entitled to payment under an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament.

(6) Descriptions of persons may be prescribed for the purposes of subsection (1) by reference to any criterion and, in particular, by reference to any of the following criteria—

(a) their age,

(b) the fact that a prescribed person or a prescribed body accepts them as suffering from a prescribed medical condition,

(c) the fact that a prescribed person or a prescribed body accepts that a prescribed medical condition from which they suffer arose in prescribed circumstances,

(d) their receipt of benefit in money or in kind under any enactment or their entitlement to receive any such benefit, and

(e) the receipt of any such benefit by other persons satisfying prescribed conditions or the entitlement of other persons satisfying prescribed conditions to receive such benefits.

(7) Regulations which refer to an Act of Parliament or an instrument made under an Act of Parliament may direct that the reference is to be construed as a reference to that Act or instrument—

(a) as it has effect at the time when the regulations are made, or

(b) both as it has effect at that time and as amended subsequently.

(8) Regulations may provide that a person—

(a) whose sight is tested by a person who provides general ophthalmic services, and

(b) who is shown during the test or within a prescribed time after it to fall within subsection (1),

must be taken for the purposes of the test to have fallen within subsection (1) immediately before the test.

(9) For the purposes of subsection (8), the test must be treated as a sight test under this Act—

(a) for the purposes of any arrangements under this section,

(b) for the purposes of remuneration in respect of the test, and

(c) for any such other purpose as may be prescribed.

(10) Regulations must define the services for the provision of which arrangements under this section must be made, and the services so defined are in this Act referred to as “general ophthalmic services”.