The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment (No. 3) Regulations 1996

Statutory Instruments

1996 No. 2574

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE, ENGLAND AND WALES

The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Amendment (No. 3) Regulations 1996

Made

10th October 1996

Laid before Parliament

11th October 1996

Coming into force

1st November 1996

The Secretary of State for Health, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 126(4) 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 (No. 3) Regulations 1996 and shall come into force on 1st November 1996.

Amendment of regulation 1 of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1989

2.  In regulation 1(2) of the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1989(2) (interpretation), in the definition of “NHS sight test fee”—

(a) in paragraph (a), for “£36.65” there is substituted “£37.83”; and

(b) in paragraph (b), for “£13.41” there is substituted “£13.71”.

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health

Simon Burns

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department of Health

10th October 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1989, which provide for payments to be made by means of a voucher system in respect of costs incurred by certain categories of person in connection with the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances.

Regulation 2 amends the definition of “NHS sight test fee” in regulation 1(2) of the 1989 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—

(a) the value of assistance towards the cost of a private sight test; and

(b) the value of vouchers towards the cost of a private sight test or towards the supply of glasses or contact lenses.

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 £36.65 to £37.83 [3.22%]; and

(b) the figure used in all other cases is increased from £13.41 to £13.71 [2.25%].

(1)

1977 c. 49; see section 128(1) as amended by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (c. 19) (“the 1990 Act”), section 26(2)(g) and (i), for the definitions of “prescribed” and “regulations”. Section 126(4) was amended by the 1990 Act, section 65(2). Paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 was inserted by the Health and Social Security Act 1984 (c. 48), Schedule 1, Part I, paragraph 3 and amended by the Health and Medicines Act 1988 (c. 49), section 13(2) and (3).

(2)

S.I. 1989/396; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1991/2465 (which substituted a new definition of “NHS sight test fee”), S.I. 1992/404, 1994/131, 1994/2619, 1995/34 and 1995/2307.