The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment (No. 3) (England) Regulations 2002

Statutory Instruments

2002 No. 1326

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND

The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment (No. 3) (England) Regulations 2002

Made

13th May 2002

Laid before Parliament

13th May 2002

Coming into force

3rd June 2002

The Secretary of State for Health, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 to the National Health Service Act 1977(1) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencment, interpretation and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment( No. 3) (England) Regulations 2002 and shall come into force on 3rd June 2002.

(2) In these Regulations “the principal Regulations” means the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997(2).

(3) These regulations extend to England only.

Amendment of regulation 1 of the principal Regulations

2.  In regulation 1(2) of the principal Regulations (interpretation), in the definition of “NHS sight test fee”, for the amount “£44.39” substitute “£46.16” and for the amount “£16.08” substitute “£16.72”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health

Hazel Blears

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,

Department of Health

13th May 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997 (“the principal Regulations”) which provide for payments to be made by means of a voucher system in respect of costs incurred by certain categories of persons in connection with sight tests and the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances.

Regulation 2 amends the definition of “NHS sight test fee” in regulation 1(2) of the principal Regulations to reflect an increase in the two levels of fees for National Health Service sight tests payable to ophthalmic medical practitioners and opticians (as determined under Regulation 10 of the National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) Regulations 1986–S.I. 1986/975). These amounts are relevant to determining eligibility for vouchers which may be used towards the cost of a sight test and the redemption value of such vouchers to those carrying out such tests.

(1)

1977 c. 49; see section 128(1), as amended by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (c. 19), section 26(2)(g) and (i) for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”. Paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 was inserted by the Health and Social Security Act 1984 (c. 48), Schedule 1, Part I, paragraph 3 and amended by sections 13(2) and (3) of the Health and Medicines Act 1988 (c. 49). The functions of the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Act 1977 are, so far as exercisable in relation to Wales, transferred to the National Assembly for Wales under the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999, S.I. 1999/672, article 2 and Schedule 1 as amended by section 66(5) of the Health Act 1999 (c. 8). See also section 68 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 (c. 15).

(2)

S.I. 1997/818; the relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1997/2488, 1999/609, 2000/594, 2000/3029, 2001/414 and 2002/35.