Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 29 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 April 2004. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Monday, 19 April 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 24th March, Official Report, 419 c926W, on opticians, how many optical premises were registered as accepting national health service optical vouchers in (a) each region and (b) each primary care trust for each year since 1997. - Inc fact that list in Library (Dep 04/806).

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 24 March 2004, Official Report, column 926W, on opticians, how many optical premises were registered as accepting national health service optical vouchers in (a) each region and (b) each primary care trust for each year since 1997. [165298] Ms Rosie Winterton: All optical premises registered on a primary care trust (PCT) list to provide general ophthalmic services can accept national health service optical vouchers. There is no requirement for optical practices to register to accept optical vouchers alone. The Department is not aware of any difficulty in the availability of practices willing to accept NHS optical vouchers. Information on the number of ophthalmic premises holding a contract with health authorities and latterly PCTs to provide general ophthalmic services has been placed in the Library.

Secondary information