The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Statutory Instruments

2024 No. 294

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND

The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2024

Made

4th March 2024

Laid before Parliament

5th March 2024

Coming into force

1st April 2024

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 180(1) and (3), 272(7) and (8) of the National Health Service Act 2006(1).

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 1st April 2024.

(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales.

Amendment of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 2013

2.—(1) The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 2013(2) are amended as follows.

(2) In regulation 20 (redemption value of voucher for replacement or repair)—

(a) in paragraph (1)(b), for “£60.75” substitute “£61.77”;

(b) in paragraph (3), for “£15.80” substitute “£16.06”.

(3) In Schedule 1 (voucher letter codes and face values - supply and replacement), in column (3) (face value of voucher) of the table—

(a) for “£41.70” substitute “£42.40”;

(b) for “£63.20” substitute “£64.26”;

(c) for “£92.60” substitute “£94.14”;

(d) for “£208.90” substitute “£212.40”;

(e) for “£71.90” substitute “£73.10”;

(f) for “£91.20” substitute “£92.72”;

(g) for “£118.50” substitute “£120.48”;

(h) for “£229.70” substitute “£233.56”;

(i) for “£214.00” substitute “£217.58”;

(j) for “£60.75” substitute “£61.77”.

(4) In Schedule 2 (prisms, tints, photochromic lenses, small and special glasses and complex appliances)—

(a) in paragraph 1(1)—

(i) in paragraph (a), for “£13.45” substitute “£13.67”;

(ii) in paragraph (b), for “£16.40” substitute “£16.67”;

(iii) in paragraph (c), for “£4.70” substitute “£4.77”;

(iv) in paragraph (d), for “£5.20” substitute “£5.28”;

(v) in paragraph (e)—

(aa) for “£68.45” substitute “£69.60”;

(bb) for “£60.75” substitute “£61.77”;

(cc) for “£32.80” substitute “£33.35”;

(vi) in paragraph (f)—

(aa) in sub-paragraph (i), for “£68.45” substitute “£69.60”;

(bb) in sub-paragraph (ii), for “£60.75” substitute “£61.77”;

(cc) in sub-paragraph (iii), for “£32.80” substitute “£33.35”;

(b) in paragraph 2—

(i) in sub-paragraph (a), for “£15.55” substitute “£15.81”;

(ii) in sub-paragraph (b), for “£39.90” substitute “£40.57”.

(5) In Schedule 3 (voucher values – repair), for the table substitute—

“(1)	(2)
Nature of repair	Letter of code - value of voucher
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
Repair or replacement of one lens	£13.17	£24.10	£39.04	£98.17	£28.52	£38.33	£52.21	£108.75	£100.76
Repair or replacement of two lenses	£26.34	£48.20	£78.08	£196.34	£57.04	£76.66	£104.42	£217.50	£201.52
Repair or replacement of the front of a frame	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47	£13.47
Repair or replacement of the side of a frame	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98	£7.98
Repair or replacement of the whole of a frame	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06	£16.06.”

Saving provision

3.  Where, before 1st April 2024, a voucher is accepted or presented by virtue of regulation 12 (use of vouchers for supply of optical appliances) or regulation 18 (use of vouchers for replacement or repair) of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 2013, Schedules 1 to 3 of those Regulations have effect in relation to that voucher as if these Regulations had not come into force.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Andrea Leadsom

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department of Health and Social Care

4th March 2024

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/461) (“the 2013 Regulations”) which make provision for payments to be made by means of vouchers to eligible persons, to meet or contribute towards costs incurred in connection with the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances pursuant to Part 6 of the National Health Service Act 2006 (c. 41). The 2013 Regulations apply to England only.

The 2013 Regulations are amended to increase voucher values by approximately 1.68%.

Regulation 2(2) amends regulation 20 of the 2013 Regulations to increase the redemption value of a voucher issued for replacement of a single contact lens or repair of a frame.

Regulations 2(3) to (5) amend Schedules 1, 2 and 3 to the 2013 Regulations to increase the value of vouchers issued towards the cost of supply and replacement of glasses and contact lenses, increase the additional value of vouchers for prisms, tints, photochromic lenses and special categories of appliances and increase the value of vouchers for the cost of the repair and replacement of optical appliances.

Regulation 3 is a saving provision which provides that the old values will continue to apply in relation to vouchers accepted or presented before 1st April 2024.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

(1)

2006 c. 41. Section 180 was amended by section 34 of, and Schedule 6 to, the Health Act 2009 (c. 21), section 205 of, and paragraph 96 of Schedule 4 to, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (c. 7), and paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 1 to the Health and Care Act 2022 (c. 31). “Prescribed” and “regulations” are defined in section 275 of the National Health Service Act 2006. By virtue of section 271(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006, the powers conferred by these sections are exercisable by the Secretary of State only in relation to England.

(2)

S.I. 2013/461. The relevant amending instruments are S.I. 2016/325, S.I. 2022/221 and S.I. 2023/244. Under the Health and Care Act 2022, the NHS Commissioning Board was renamed NHS England (section 1). As a consequence of that change, under paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 1 to the Health and Care Act 2022, the references to the NHS Commissioning Board in S.I. 2013/261 (defined as “the Board” in regulation 1(1)) are to be read, in relation to any time on or after 1st July 2022, as references to NHS England.