12 December 2024
The General Optical Council has approved a 2.5% increase in registration fees for 2025.
The renewal fee for fully qualified registrants and body corporates will be £415 – up £10 from the previous year.
The low-income discount will increase to £125, meaning that the uplift for this registrant group will be 1.75%.
The GOC has agreed to freeze student fees at £30, while there has been a £5 uplift to process applications from registrants who qualified overseas.
Introducing the fee rise at a meeting of the GOC on Thursday (11 December, held online), GOC director of corporate services, Yeslin Gearty, highlighted that the increase to the main registration fee is in line with inflation.
“We’ve considered how we can minimise the impact on lower earning registrants, and we feel the increase in the low income fee concession to £125 reflects that and is proportionate,” he said.
He explained that the small increase in fees for applications from overseas registrants reflects an uplift in inquiries from this group.
The fee increase accounts for the time that the registration team is taking to address queries, rather than process applications, Gearty clarified.
A summary of the approach taken by other regulators to fee rises was presented within papers prepared for the meeting.
This analysis shows that there have been uplifts in fees by the General Medical Council, the Health and Care Professions Council and the General Pharmaceutical Council.
Fees have remained the same at the General Osteopathic Council, General Chiropractic Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, Social Work England and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland. In 2024, the General Dental Council (GDC) reduced its main fee by 10%.
GOC councillor, Dr Josie Forte, questioned whether the GDC fee decrease was an anomaly.
“It seemed at odds to what is happening with the other professions,” she said.
In response, Gearty agreed that the GDC is an outlier and explained that the fee decrease resulted from an instruction to reduce the GDC’s reserve level.
GOC councillor, Frank Munro, said that he appreciated that the decision took into account wider challenges facing businesses – such as increased National Insurance contributions.
“It is employers on the whole who will be paying this fee for the people who work in their practices. It does take into account the pressures that are ongoing within businesses,” he said.
Fellow councillor, Ken Gill, highlighted that in the future the GOC will undertake a review of how fees are set.
“It’s never easy to say we need to increase fees, but I think this is absolutely the right thing to do. What we have here is a short-term decision, in the knowledge that we are going to look more strategically at the way we set fees,” he said.
Comments (4)
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Anonymous15 December 2024
So when will the various devolved governements fee negotiators manage to negotiate a fee structure that accurately reflects the nature of the work we do. I work in NI and we are still expecte to work at a loss. GOC increase their fees, we earn less now than I hve ever in nearly 30 years. Honestly, stacking shelves pays almost as much
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Anonymous13 December 2024
I understand that costs are going up for the GOC, but why do they need to have their offices in central London? If they moved out of London to somewhere cheaper they could relay the savings to GOC members.
With cost of living, they should be thinking about how they should cut their costs and not increase ours.
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Anonymous12 December 2024
When I’ve reported illegal cosmetic contact lens sales, by shops on the High Street, GOC wait over 6 months, then say no harm reported so no action going to be taken…
When a teenager goes blind at Halloween, will action be taken.
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Anonymous12 December 2024
What a great idea! Charge more and say it is the right thing to do! Bravo!
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