General Optical Council freeze on registration fees

The General Optical Council met yesterday in Cardiff and was expected to agree a freeze to the registration fee for 2007-08, making it the fourth consecutive year that fees have not gone up.

A standard registration will remain at £169 with student registration at £20. Newly qualified registrants will, for the first time, be able to take advantage of a pro rata scheme where they will only have a pay a proportion of the full registration calculated from the date of joining to March 31.

The meeting took place after Optician went to press, but a pre-Council briefing added that an increase in fees was anticipated for 2008-09.