Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of (a) eye care services provision and (b) steps taken by Integrated Care Boards to ensure equality of access to eye care services in each region.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet local need. NHS sight tests are widely available across the country. The decision to commission enhanced eye care services will be determined by local ICBs following a local needs assessment.

ICBs are required to work with local authorities to assess the current and future health, care and wellbeing needs of their local populations. They will then set out in joint local health and wellbeing strategies how they will meet those needs, which could include addressing any identified inequalities in accessing services. ICBs will also want to take account of published waiting list information which is broken down by demographics to allow greater visibility of potential health inequalities.