The National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2004

Made: 30 June 2004

Coming into force: 1 July 2004

The National Assembly for Wales, in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by section 126(4) of, and paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 to the National Health Service Act 1977[^f00001] hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation, commencement, interpretation and application

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2004 and will come into force on 1 July 2004.

• (2) In these Regulations “the 1997 Regulations” (“Rheoliadau 1997”) means the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997[^f00002].

• (3) These Regulations apply to Wales only.

Amendment of the 1997 Regulations

2

In regulation 1(2) of the 1997 Regulations (citation, commencement and interpretation) in the definition of “NHS sight test fee”—

• (a) for “£46.16” substitute “£49.19”; and

• (b) for “£16.72” substitute “£17.82”.

Signed

Signed on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales under section 66(1) of the Government of Wales Act 1998[^f00003].

D . Elis-Thomas — The Presiding Officer of the National Assembly — 30 June 2004

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Optical Charges and Payments) Regulations 1997, which provide for a scheme of payments to be made by Local Health Boards and National Health Service Trusts, by means of a voucher system, towards the costs incurred by certain categories of people in connection with sight tests and the supply, replacement and repair of optical appliances.

Regulation 2 of these Regulations amends the definition of “NHS sight test fee” to increase the values of the two levels of fee for NHS sight tests payable to ophthalmic medical practitioners and opticians. These amounts are relevant to the determination of eligibility for and, the redemption value of, a voucher towards the cost of a sight test.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1977 c. 49 (“the 1977 Act”); 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) of the 1977 Act was amended by the 1990 Act, Schedule 4, paragraph 37(5). Paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 was inserted by the Health and Social Security Act 1984 (c. 48), Schedule 1, paragraph 3 and amended by section 13(2) and (3) of the Health and Medicines Act 1988 (c. 48). The functions of the Secretary of State under sections 126(4) of, and paragraph 2A of Schedule 12 to, the 1977 Act were transferred to the National Assembly for Wales by the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999, S.I. 1999/672, article 2 and Schedule 1, as amended by section 66(5) of the Health Act 1999.

[^f00002]: S.I.1997/818; the relevant amending instruments are S.I.1997/2488, 1998/499, 1999/609, 2000/978 (W.48), 2000/3119 (W.198), 2001/1362 (W.90) and 1423 (W.98), 2002/186 (W.25) and 1506 (W.151) and 2003/301 (W.43) and 955 (W.129).

[^f00003]: 1998 c. 38.