The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment Regulations 1997

Statutory Instruments

1997 No. 2488

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND AND WALES

The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment Regulations 1997

Made

17th October 1997

Laid before Parliament

20th October 1997

Coming into force

10th November 1997

The Secretary of State for Health, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 126(4) and 128(1) of, and 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 and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment Regulations 1997 and shall come into force on 10th November 1997.

Amendment of regulation 1 of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997

2.  In regulation 1(2) of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997(2) (interpretation), in the definition of “NHS sight test fee”—

(a) in paragraph (a), for “£37.83” there shall be substituted “£39.04”; and

(b) in paragraph (b), for “£13.71” there shall be substituted “£14.10”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health,

Alan Milburn

Minister of State,

Department of Health

17th October 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997 (“the 1997 Regulations”), which provide a scheme for payments to be made by Health Authorities and NHS trusts 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 1997 Regulations. This fee is set at two levels depending on whether the sight test was carried out at the patient’s home or not, and the appropriate figure is used to calculate the value of assistance towards the cost of a private sight test.

These two levels of NHS sight test fee are raised by regulation 2 as follows—

(a) the figure used where the sight test was carried out at the patient’s home is raised from £37.83 to £39.04 [3.2%]; and

(b) the figure used in all other cases is increased from £13.71 to £14.10 [2.8%].

(1)

1977 c. 49. Section 126(4) was amended by section 65(2) of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (c. 19) (“the 1990 Act”). Section 128(1) is an interpretation provision and is cited because of the meanings assigned to the words “prescribed” and “regulations”; section 128(1) was amended by sections 26(2)(g) and (i) of the 1990 Act. Paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 was inserted by paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 1 to the Health and Social Security Act 1984 (c. 48) and amended by section 13(2) and (3) of the Health and Medicines Act 1988 (c. 49).

(2)

S.I. 1997/818.