GOC consults on codes of conduct proposals

Practitioners are being asked to comment on whether they should be legally required to report concerns about their own or a colleague's fitness to practise, as part of the General Optical Council (GOC) consultation into the changes to the codes of conduct for individual and business registrants.

The codes of conduct were introduced to meet the requirements under the Opticians Act 1989, which required the Council to issue formal guidance to registrants.

Changes are proposed to 14 areas of the codes of conduct. Issues under consideration include:'What kinds of behaviour, while practising or not, should put a person's registration at risk?'Also, 'Do the codes of conduct do enough to promote equality and diversity?'