Optical Charges and Payments (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made: 9th October 1996

Coming into operation: 1st November 1996

The Department of Health and Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Articles 98 and 106 of, and paragraph 2A of Schedule 15 to, the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972[^f00001] and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, with the approval of the Department of Finance and Personnel, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Optical Charges and Payments (Amendment No. 3) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and shall come into operation on 1st November 1996.

• (2) In these Regulations, “the principal Regulations” means the Optical Charges and Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989[^f00002].

Amendment of regulation 1 of the principal Regulations

2

In regulation 1(2) of the principal Regulations (interpretation) in the definition of “health service sight test fee”—

• (a) in sub-paragraph (a) for “£36·65” there shall be substituted “£37·83”; and

• (b) in sub-paragraph (b) for “£13·41” there shall be substituted “£13·71”.

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health and Social Services on

Joan Dixon — Assistant Secretary — 9th October 1996.

The Department of Finance and Personnel hereby approves the foregoing Regulations.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Finance and Personnel on 9th October 1996.

J. G. Sullivan — Assistant Secretary

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Optical Charges and Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989 (“the principal Regulations”) which provide for payments to be made, by means of a voucher system, in respect of costs incurred by certain categories of persons in connection with eye sight tests and the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances.

Regulation 2 amends the definition of “health service sight test fee” in regulation 1(2) of the principal Regulations. This fee is set at two levels depending on whether the sight test is 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 health service sight test fee are raised by regulation 2 as follows—

• (a) the figure used where the sight test is 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%).

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1972/1265 (N.I. 14) as amended by S.I. 1984/1158 (N.I. 8) Article 3 and paragraph 3 of Schedule 1; S.I. 1988/2249 (N.I. 24) paragraphs (4) and (5) of Article 8; and S.I. 1991/194 (N.I. 1) Article 34 and Part II of Schedule 5; there are other amendments which are not relevant

[^f00002]: S.R. 1989 No. 114 as amended by S.R. 1991 No. 496, S.R. 1992 No. 155, S.R. 1994 No. 31, S.R. 1994 No. 388, and S.R. 1995 Nos. 16 and 358