Comment: Profession with room at the top

There is a sense that big changes are afoot at the General Optical Council. A very firm hand on the tiller will certainly be needed in the next few months, but whose hand will it be?

Of course under the new rules all of the appointments will be made by the Appointments Commission. It will have to oversee the recruitment of the new,smallerCouncil and to replace the outgoing registrar, Peter Coe, who retires this month and the chairman, Rosie Varley, whose tenure ceases at the end of this year.

The Council meeting last week certainly wouldn't have wanted to do anything to make the newslimmed-down board ofCouncilmembers difficult to recruit.The chairman will continue to receive an annual honorarium of £35,000, while an annual package of £12,000 was agreed for Council members.The Appointments Commission will certainly have its work cut out to fill all of those posts.