With concerns about remote sales of spectacles and contact lenses still prominent, the GOC has outlined plans for a new protocol when it assesses alleged criminal offences under the Opticians Act.
The news has emerged three months after the Council withdrew from its planned prosecution of eBay for ‘aiding and abetting’ the illegal sale of contact lenses.
The protocol will set out what happens when an allegation is received, how it will be investigated, details of how the suspect will be contacted and who will make a decision to prosecute.
Geoff Harris, chair of the GOC working group which has initiated the protocol, told the Council’s summer newsletter that ‘protecting the professions from commercial pressures, though they may be acutely felt, is not part of the GOC’s role’.
Lessons have been learnt from the eBay case, the Council has stated, and Harris said that the GOC has to be sure a potential case is ‘completely sound’ before proceeding to legal action.
‘There are risks if we are unsuccessful,’ he said. ‘That’s not a reason for being timid or dragging our feet, but it’s an excellent reason for choosing our fight wisely.’
He said if the GOC believed there was a risk to public health and safety it was very important that any case it took forward presented ‘the best possible opportunity to have risk recognised by a court’.
The working group will give the Council an update of developments in a private session on June 22.