Optical bodies try to agree test case facts

The optical profession will meet with Customs & Excise officials soon in a bid to underscore the agreed facts before the £100m VAT on dispensing question reaches full tribunal hearings this winter.
With the two cases heading for tribunal in November, the optical bodies involved in mounting the Specsavers Visionplus case, and the Leightons/ Eye-Tech case met this week (August 21).
The AOP and ABDO have put their financial support behind the Leightons/Eye-Tech case, to which around 80 practices have pledged their support with appeals of their own. FODO has mounted the Specsavers Visionplus test case agreed with Customs.
Both cases will challenge efforts to make the sale of contact lenses and spectacles subject to a single, standard rated supply.
FODO general secretary Bob Hughes said this weekÕs meeting was ÔconstructiveÕ. But with the two cases nearing their hearing dates he said the situation remained unsatisfactory.
ÔWe will seek to do some work together to look at what agreed facts can be established between the two cases and Customs, though there is no date as yet for this meeting,Õ he said.