§ 2.40 p.m.
§ Lord RugbyMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the cash value of DHSS vouchers for children's spectacles, what is the cost of the appropriate eye test, and where the vouchers can be obtained.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Baroness Trumpington)My Lords, no decisions have been taken yet about the value of vouchers but it is intended that they will be given to people entitled to them at the time the sight test is carried out. National Health Service sight tests will remain free of charge to everybody.
§ Lord RugbyMy Lords, I thank the noble Baroness very much for that reply. Before the Government decide how the matter will be conducted, I wonder whether she will take note of the editorial in the British Journal of Ophthalmology which has done a survey of children and eye tests and those children who have had to be put into spectacles. It has come up with the figure that something like 25,000 children are at the moment being treated with spectacles unnecessarily. She may perhaps bring that matter to the attention of her department when it is making the decision, because I believe that it is really a form of child abuse if it is true that the spectacles are in fact unnecessary.
§ Baroness TrumpingtonMy Lords, while accepting that there may be some overprescribing of spectacles, my department is seeking further independent professional advice on that situation.
Lord Wallace of CoslanyMy Lords, will the noble Baroness say whether those vouchers will be available for use only with qualified opticians and not with any Tom, Dick or Harry who is flogging spectacles?
§ Baroness TrumpingtonMy Lords, I assume that the noble Lord is talking about unregistered suppliers.
§ Baroness TrumpingtonMy Lords, unregistered suppliers can sell spectacles to anyone other than for a child or anyone whom they know to be registered as blind or partially sighted. However, they can do so only on production of a written prescription that is not more than two years old. They must also observe certain other requirements concerning the safety and complexity of lenses, and they cannot sell contact lenses.
§ Lord Cullen of AshbourneMy Lords, can my noble friend confirm that the voucher scheme will be introduced, as planned, on 1st July?
§ Baroness TrumpingtonMy Lords, from 1st July 1986, National Health Service glasses will be discontinued and children and those on low incomes will instead be able to obtain a wider choice of glasses from the private market by means of a voucher. Details of the voucher scheme and values are still under consideration.