Interview: Jonathan Lawson, CEO Vision Express

It is not often that Vision Express takes Optician to task but earlier this year it felt moved to fire off a tetchy email.

It was a fair cop. Optician had indeed quoted the Macular Society, in its call for a National Eye Health Strategy, as saying optics had not been discussed in parliament since 2010. Given that VE was working with Rebecca Harris MP on a number of projects it wanted to put the record straight. Unfortunately a snap election was called shortly after the call highlighting the difficulty of optics working with MPs and securing parliamentary time.

Yes, Vision Express is campaigning but, adds Lawson, only so much can happen in parliament. ‘I do think we are going to have some realism because if we wait continually for some airtime within a Queen’s Speech for an Eye Health Strategy to develop we will be waiting a long time. Because there will be no room on this Queen’s Speech and, as and when we have another one, there will be no room in that one either, Brexit will dominate,’ he says.