HC Deb 10 March 1989 vol 148 cc720-1W
Mr. Barry Field

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the new arrangements for sight testing are to come into effect.

Mr. Mellor

I have today laid two sets of regulations. The first will extend the National Health Service voucher scheme for glasses. The second will restrict National Health Service sight tests to the following groupsChildren under 16 Full time students under age 19 People or their partners who are receiving Income Support or Family Credit People entitled to full remission of National Health Service charges The registered blind or partially sighted Those who are prescribed complex lenses Diagnosed diabetic and glaucoma sufferers Parents, brothers, sisters and children age 40 and over of glaucoma sufferers.

Financial assistance will be available through the voucher scheme towards the cost of their sight test for those on low income who are not eligible for a National Health Service test.

The regulations will also extend the current voucher scheme to provide help for adults with the cost of the repair or replacement of their spectacles where the loss or damage was the result of the person's disability, injury or illness.

We are consulting further on regulations which will set out the duties to be undertaken when a person's sight is tested.

I would like to make it clear that the second set of regulations to which I have referred does not impose a new charge for sight testing: it simply removes the National Health Service subsidy from people other than those in the groups listed in the table.