2021-22 archived consultation: Illegal practice strategy review

The GOC’s overarching objective is the protection of the public. Although not a specific statutory duty, or part of our core functions, we may act on reports about alleged illegal optical practice (illegal practice) when necessary to protect the public.

Illegal practice is conduct that amounts to a criminal offence under Part IV of the Opticians Act 1989 ('the Act'). We carried out a review of our illegal practice strategy and protocol because we wanted to be more proactive in our approach to illegal practice and provide clarity on when we will take action and what action will be taken.

We undertook a full public consultation on our proposed updates to the policy, which was open for 12 weeks from 27 October 2021 to 24 January 2022. We consulted on an updated illegal practice protocol which included the following changes:

• the addition of acceptance criteria;
• setting out our approach to illegal online sales;
• requiring early lawyer input into investigations;
• the introduction of a process for test purchases; and
• greater clarity about when we will consider a prosecution.

We received 26 written consultation responses from a range of stakeholders including optical representative organisations and our registrants.

Key findings from the consultation were:

• 42% agreed or strongly agreed that the updated protocol links more closely with our overarching objective of protecting the public (the same percentage disagreed);
• 42% agreed or strongly agreed that the updated protocol will improve sector awareness of our remit regarding illegal optical practice;
• 58% agreed or strongly agreed that the updated protocol will provide clarity on when we will act and what action will be taken;
• 61% felt that there were matters unclear or missing from the protocol; and
• 62% felt there were no aspects of the updated protocol that could discriminate against stakeholders with specific characteristics.

Based on feedback received during the consultation we have decided to make the following amendments to the protocol that we consulted on:

• potential for serious harm has been included as a factor indicating higher risk in addition to actual harm caused by illegal practice;
• the case assessor and/or reviewing lawyer will seek advice from the GOC’s clinical advisers about clinical risk in appropriate cases;
• sections about legislation relating to the testing of sight and sale of prescription spectacles have been made clearer; and
• provision that the GOC may re-open a complaint following a referral to a third party if the third party is unable to act and the statutory time limit for bringing a prosecution has not expired

Further detail about the amendments and the areas we considered are in our GOC response to the consultation located in the 'files' section below (see pages 15-18 for the conclusions). An impact assessment is also available.

We published the updated protocol on our website. 

Files:

• GOC response to illegal practice protocol consultation June 2022 (PDF document)
• Illegal practice strategy consultation responses - comments (PDF document)
• Illegal practice Q&A - June 2022 (PDF document)
• Illegal practice strategy impact assessment May 2022 (PDF document)