The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and restate the provisions in the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2003 (S.S.I. 2003/200) (“the First Amendment Regulations”), which contained errors.

Regulation 2 of these Regulations, which revokes the First Amendment Regulations, comes into force on 31st March 2003 so that it is clear that the First Amendment Regulations never came into force.

Otherwise, these Regulations amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 1998 (“the 1998 Regulations”) which provide for payments to be made by means of a voucher system, in respect of eligibility to obtain a voucher and of costs incurred by certain categories of persons in connection with the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances.

Regulation 3(2) and (3) make amendments to regulation 1 (citation, commencement and interpretation) and 8 (eligibility – supply of optical appliances) of the 1998 Regulations consequent to the abolition of disabled person’s tax credit and working family tax credit and their replacement by child tax credit and working tax credit by the Tax Credits Act 2002.

Regulation 3(4) inserts a new regulation 12A into the 1998 Regulations to provide for the Scottish Ministers to issue notices of entitlement based on entitlement to the new child tax credit and working tax credit.

Regulation 3(5) amends regulation 19 of the 1998 Regulations to increase the redemption value of a voucher issued towards the cost of replacement of a single contact lens and to increase the maximum contribution by way of a voucher to the cost of repair of a frame.

Regulation 3(6) amends Schedule 1 to the 1998 Regulations to increase the value of vouchers towards the cost of the supply and replacement of optical appliances. Regulation 3(7) substitutes a new Schedule 2 in the 1998 Regulations to increase the value of vouchers issued towards the cost of the repair and replacement of optical appliances. Regulation 3(8) amends Schedule 3 to the 1998 Regulations to increase the additional values for vouchers for prisms, tints or photochromic lenses and special categories of appliances. The average rate of the increase is 2.5%.

Regulation 4 provides that the increases contained in regulations 3(5), (6), (7) and (8) only apply in relation to vouchers accepted or used on or after 1st April 2003.

Regulation 5 makes transitional provision for those persons who were entitled to a payment of, or contribution towards, the cost for the supply of an optical appliance by virtue of being in receipt of one of the old tax credits or being a member of a family of such a person.