Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with the devolved Administrations to improve eye health care across the UK.

The provision of eye care services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter. In England, free eye tests and optical vouchers are provided to contribute towards the cost of glasses, with over 12 million National Health Service sight tests provided in 2021/22. NHS England has recently appointed a National Clinical Director for eye care to oversee the post pandemic recovery and long term transformation of optical services.

We are supporting research into diagnosis, prevention and treatment of eye conditions, including a £20 million award to the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre for vision research. Through the NIHR, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland work on a range of topics and the devolved administrations co-fund several research programmes.