Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to promote to health commissioners the role that community optical practices can play in delivering eyecare services.

It is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to take decisions on whether to commission eye care services over and above the National Health Service sight test, where they judge them to be needed in their areas.

NHS England has been working with the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning (CCEHC) to support the development of a range of guidelines for CCGs on evidence based clinical pathways for eye health.

As part of this work the CCEHC have published both a Primary Eye Care and Community Ophthalmology framework. Both seek to encourage greater commissioning outside of the hospital setting in order to reduce pressure within secondary care, improve services for patients and offer efficiencies for the NHS.