Orders of the Day — Opticians Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 6 December 1957.

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Photo of Sir Eric Errington Sir Eric Errington , Aldershot 12:00, 6 December 1957

That is of considerable importance.

The other provision that I wish to refer to shortly is that contained in Clause 22 (1, b), which gives the General Optical Council the power to make rules prohibiting or regulating … the use by registered opticians and enrolled bodies corporate for the purposes of their practice or business, of names other than those under which they are registered or enrolled. I hope that no difficulty will arise in respect of medical eye centres. I understand that a medical eye centre is normally a place used by the ophthalmologist, together with the dispensing optician, and it is a convenient place provided by the National Ophthalmic Treatment Board. It is always known as a medical eye centre, and if it is necessary to ensure that a technically-qualified optician is working there, I see no reason why the name of that qualified person should not be there as well as the name "Medical eye centre".

There are other matters which will obviously arise in Committee. The Bill has suffered from a few technical difficulties at its birth but I hope that, as a result of its going to Committee, it can make a very useful contribution to this important subject.