GOC agrees sweeping changes to FTP rules

Radical proposals to change the General Optical Council's fitness to practise (FTP) rules were agreed at a session of the Council last week.

Under the changes the investigation committee (IC) would be replaced by case examiners to determine if complaints need to be handled at an FTP hearing. In future the GOC will also consider applying costs against defendants who cause cases to be unduly expensive or long by failing to comply with requests or employ other ruses.

These changes, along with a fast-track system for simple cases and an electronic case management system, are designed to meet new performance indicators for the time cases take to be heard and improve the efficiency of the FTP process.