These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997 (“the Principal Regulations”).

The Principal Regulations provide for a scheme of 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.

These Regulations make provision for a responsible authority to grant permission to an ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician to issue a voucher to enable the provision of an additional optical appliance of the same prescription to an eligible person within the prescribed category.

Regulation 2 amends regulation 9 of the Principal Regulations which provides that a voucher for an additional optical appliance may be authorised by the responsible authority (that is, the health authority for the area in which the supply of the optical appliance will take place) in cases the patient is a child or a person under the age of 19 years who is receiving full time education who, in either case, is either suffering from an illness, a consequence of which is that the patient requires an additional optical appliance of the same prescription to be supplied, or the requirement arises as a result of circumstances that the responsible authority accepts as being exceptional.

Regulations 3 amends regulation 12 of the principal Regulations which make provision for the procedure to be adopted in cases where entitlement to a voucher for an additional appliance is claimed.

Regulation 4 amends regulation 13 of the principal Regulations to make provision for procedure to be adopted to enable the supplier of an additional optical appliance to receive payment from the responsible health authority.