Opticians

Legal Defence for Opticians

The GOC has four core functions:

• Setting standards for optical education and training, performance and conduct.
• Approving qualifications leading to registration.
• Maintaining a register of individuals who are qualified and fit to practise, train or carry on business as optometrists and dispensing opticians.
• Investigating and acting where registrants’ fitness to practise, train or carry on business is impaired.

Fitness to practise

A complaint that a GOC registrant may not be fit to practise can be as a result of one or more of a number of different factors including:

Poor professional performance or professional incompetance
Physical or mental health problems affecting their work
Inappropriate behaviour
Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs at work
Fraud or dishonesty
A criminal conviction or caution, professional misconduct
A finding by another regulatory body

Criminal Offences

An individual or a business may have committed a criminal offence, either by:

Pretending they are a GOC registrant by using certain professional titles (including “optometrist” or “dispensing optician”); or
By carrying out healthcare activities that only GOC registrants are legally able to carry out (including eye tests or dispensing glasses to children aged 16 or under)

Investigation

Once a complaint is received it will be investigated and documentary evidence obtained from relevant sources to support the allegation. This is sent to the registrant concerned for comment to be made and for a response to be given.

We can assist you in dealing with the matter at this stage so that you have an opportunity to make your comments and for any evidence in support to be identified and secured at the outset. It is important that you cooperate with the process if you are to avail yourself of the opportunity of bringing the matter to a swift conclusion if at all possible.

Investigation Committee

The Investigation Committee is made up of GOC registrants and lay members (people who are not optically trained). Its procedures are set out in the Act.

Investigation Committee meetings are held in private, and neither registrants nor complainants are permitted to attend. The Committee considers each complaint/ allegation together with all the information gathered and any representations made by the registrant, as well as any further comments made by the complainant. The Investigation Committee will decide what action to take in relation to each complaint/allegation, and can: take no further action; ask for further investigation to be carried out (such as undertaking an assessment of a registrant’s health or performance) – the case is returned to the Investigation Committee once this information has been gathered; give the registrant a warning provide the registrant with a letter of advice; ask the registrant to attend a voluntary performance review which, if satisfactory, can lead to the conclusion of the investigation; refer an allegation to the Fitness to Practise Committee, which will usually hold public hearing to decide what action to take.

More detail about each of these outcomes is set out in the Investigation Committee’s guidance, which is available from the GOC website

Once the Investigation Committee has considered a complaint/allegation against a registrant, the GOC will write to the registrant (or the registrant’s representative) and complainant to inform them of the Committee’s decision and, if there is any further action, what that will be.

Interim Orders

If the Investigation Committee is of the opinion that the Fitness to Practise Committee should consider making an interim order it can direct that the matter should be referred. An interim order can either suspend a registrant from the register or place conditions on their registration. Interim orders take effect immediately. They are reviewed every six months and usually remain in place until the investigation has been completed and the substantive Fitness to Practise Committee hearing has finished. An interim order is only imposed on a registrant if the Fitness to Practise Committee is satisfied that it is necessary for the protection of members of the public, is otherwise in the public interest or is in the interests of a registrant. If a complaint/allegation is referred to the Fitness to Practise Committee to consider whether to impose an interim order, a hearing will be arranged.

Fitness to Practise hearings

Before the Fitness to Practise Committee can hold a hearing to hear the evidence about the allegation and reach its decision (which we will refer to in the rest of this guidance as the substantive hearing) the Committee will hold a procedural hearing. At the procedural hearing, the Committee will decide on the timetable for various important activities that need to take place before the substantive hearing. They will usually include: providing written copies of any evidence which is going to be presented to the Committee at the substantive hearing; deciding on who are going to be called as witnesses; setting the date for the substantive hearing and its length.  If an allegation is referred to the Fitness to Practise Committee by the Investigation Committee, the Hearings Manager contacts the registrant to arrange a date for the procedural hearing. Registrants are entitled to be represented at any hearing by a lawyer or some other representative. Some registrants choose to represent themselves. Registrants do not have to attend either the procedural or the substantive hearing of the Fitness to Practise Committee. However, it is generally in their best interests to do so. Hearings are likely to take place even if neither the registrant nor anyone representing them is present. Hearings are held at the GOC offices in Harley Street London and are usually in public.  Full details regarding the procedure at the hearings and guidance is available from the GOC website.

Even if you do not wish to be represented written submissions can be drafted and sent to outline the nature of your response to the allegations and your references and other evidence in support. We can assist you with this depending on the actual services you require and with an eye to your budget in respect of the same. Representations at this stage can be crucial in determining the outcome and sanction if any to be imposed.

Outcomes

Once evidence has been called or adduced by both parties at the hearing, the Fitness to Practise Committee makes a number of decisions: whether the alleged facts have been proven; if the facts are proven, whether the registrant’s actions amount to misconduct or deficient professional performance or any of the other grounds under the Act on the basis of which the registrant’s fitness to practise may be impaired (including adverse physical or mental health or the existence of a criminal conviction or caution); whether the registrant’s ‘fitness’ is currently impaired; what sanction (if any) should be imposed on the registrant.

Sanctions

If the Fitness to Practise Committee hearing the case decides that the registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired, it can do any of the following:

• remove the registrant from the register – this is sometimes referred to as ‘erasure' or ‘striking off’. The registrant’s name will be taken off the register which means that they will not be able to work as an optician, train as an optician or run a GOC registered business in the UK. If they want their name put back on the register in the future, there is a separate process (known as restoration) they will have to go through, which includes considering the reason for the removal from the register
• suspend the registrant from the register – the registrant’s name will be temporarily taken off the register, which means that they cannot work for a fixed period of time until it is replaced
• conditional registration – the registrant will be allowed to stay on the register and continue working as long as they comply with certain conditions, such as doing extra training or being supervised at work; these will be subject to a review hearing.
• Financial penalty – the registrant will have to pay a fine up to a maximum of £50,000. A financial penalty can be imposed as well as removal, suspension or conditions.

If the Fitness to Practise Committee decides that the registrant’s fitness to practise is not impaired, the Committee may still give a warning about their future behaviour or performance.

Appeal

Decisions made by the Fitness to Practise Committee only take effect after the registrant has been allowed a chance to appeal to the High Court. They have 28 days from the date of the decision to lodge an appeal at the High Court. In cases where the Committee has decided to remove a registrant from the register or it has decided that a registrant should be suspended from the register, it may go on to consider whether it is necessary to order that the registrant is suspended from the register immediately. This may be necessary where the Committee considers that a registrant should be stopped from practising before the 28 day appeal period (as referred to above) expires.

Following the conclusion of the hearing, the Committee’s decision and a transcript of any public element of the hearing is posted on the GOC website.

If you are an Optician requiring a defence lawyer then please get in touch

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