The European Qualifications (Health and Social Care Professions) Regulations 2007

Amendment of the General Optical Council (Registration Rules) 2005

202.  In the General Optical Council (Registration Rules) 2005(1)—

(a) in rule 2 (interpretation), after paragraph (1) insert—

“(1A) These Rules do not apply in relation to registration in a register maintained under section 8B (registers relating to visiting opticians from relevant European States), except for rules 21A (visiting opticians from relevant European States: registration information), 21B (visiting opticians from relevant European States: changes in information provided to the Council) and 25(a) (erasure of registration).”;

(b) in rule 12 (registration and restoration of registration)—

(i) the existing provision shall be numbered as paragraph (1), and

(ii) after that provision add—

“(2) In determining an application by a person who falls within section 8(1A)(a), the Council—

(a) shall take into account all his qualifications, knowledge or experience, wherever acquired, which are relevant to the determination of his application; and

(b) if the person holds a qualification which—

(i) was granted otherwise than in a relevant European State(2), but

(ii) has been accepted by a relevant European State, other than the United Kingdom, as qualifying him to practise as an optometrist or a dispensing optician in that State,

shall take that acceptance into account.”;

(c) in rule 13 (entry and restoration of an entry relating to a specialty in a register), in paragraph (2)(a), for “another EEA State” substitute “a relevant European State other than the United Kingdom”; and

(d) after rule 21 insert—

“Visiting opticians from relevant European States: registration information

21A.   The register of visiting optometrists from relevant European States and the register of visiting dispensing opticians from relevant European States shall contain, in respect of each person whose name is registered in either of those registers, the following particulars—

(a) the person’s full name;

(b) the person’s registration number;

(c) the date of the person’s registration; and

(d) the person’s contact address in the United Kingdom.

Visiting opticians from relevant European States: changes in information provided to the Council

21B.   A person whose name is registered in the register of visiting optometrists from relevant European States or in the register of visiting dispensing opticians from relevant European States shall notify the Council forthwith of—

(a) any change to the name under which he practises; or

(b) any change to the contact details that he has notified to the Council.”.

(1)

Scheduled to S.I. 2005/1478.

(2)

“Relevant European State” is defined in section 36 of the Opticians Act 1989.