Brexit provides an opportunity for the revival of custom contact lens manufacturing in the UK, but only if industry leaders act promptly to make the government aware of the necessary steps.
Many small custom lens companies in the UK were set up initially to sell within the UK, if the business prospered and later decided to sell more widely than that was a happy outcome.
However, the EU single market regulations treat sales to geographically local customers as if they were to any country within the single market. In the case of custom contact lens manufacture the single market requirement was implemented by requiring all contact lenses manufactured in the EU to carry the CE mark. This in turn led to the imposition of extreme bureaucratic controls which effectively snuffed out what was a vigorous industry: There have been no start-ups in the UK since the CE mark was introduced, a truly astonishing statistic when you consider the grass roots activity of the 20 years prior to that. It is wholly false to suggest that the CE mark has improved product quality; this has been due exclusively to advances in custom lens manufacturing technology.
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