GOC increases fees for all registrants

Following what it described as ‘three years of real-term reductions’, the GOC has increased its annual registration fees for optometrists, dispensing opticians and bodies corporate by £30 to £290.

The GOC said the increases, the first in two years, were essential if it was to continue being an effective regulator which acted in patients’ best interests. It added that in real terms, which accounted for inflation, the fee for optometrists fell by 27.5 per cent during same the three-year period, and that the fee for dispensing opticians was reduced by 16 per cent.

GOC chair Gareth Hadley said: ‘We’ve done our utmost to keep fees down during these tough economic times for registrants and they remain lower in real terms than they were three years ago. However, our costs have naturally increased over that period and we could not fulfil our role effectively if we were to freeze our fee for another year.