Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 19 June 2023 to Question 188964 on Ophthalmic Services, what recent progress her Department has made on developing standard service specifications for enhanced eye care services.

The new standard of clinical specification for community eye care services, both minor and urgent, was published by the Local Optical Committee Support Unit on 23 February 2024. The specification will help local commissioners in getting the best outcomes, if they choose to commission these services as part of their local eye care provision. The specification is available at the following link:

https://locsu.co.uk/what-we-do/pathways/community-minor-and-urgent-eye-care-clinical-specification/