08 August 2025

FODO member update - 8 August

This week:

• Companies House - new checks from 18 November
• National Eye Health Week is Back for 2025 
• Inaugural Scottish Optometry Awards
• 2025 Optician Awards
• College and AOP repeat calls for sight tests for drivers
• At a glance
• Policy updates

Companies House - new checks from 18 November

Companies House is changing how it verifies people with significant control (PSC) and directors. Members with limited companies should note that from 18 November 2025:

• New directors must verify their identity to incorporate a company or for an existing company to nominate them
• Existing directors must confirm they have verified their identity at the same time as filing their next annual confirmation statement (which they should complete within the 12-month transition period)
• Existing PSCs must verify their identity in line with an appointed day within 12 months of the mandatory identity verification starting on 18 November.

Read more. 

National Eye Health Week is Back for 2025

National Eye Health Week (#VisionMatters) will take place from 22 to 28 September 2025. The annual public health campaign raises awareness of the importance of good eye care and plays a vital role in promoting how community optometry keeps Britain healthy.

David Cartwright, chair of Eye Health UK, the charity that runs the week, said: "This year, we're working with LOCs, public health teams and others to build strong community networks who'll use their reach and influence to share essential eye health advice and explain why regular routine sight tests are vital for everyone. In addition to amplifying our messaging, the creation of these networks will help add eye care to the mix of new neighbourhood health priorities." 

Inaugural Scottish Optometry Awards

The Scottish Optical Conference (SOC) and Vision Scotland are co-hosting the Scottish Optometry Awards and dinner dance in Glasgow on 15 November.

Taking place on the eve of the conference, the event is free to attend with a voluntary contribution to a Sight Saving Fund for patients who can't afford surgery. Of the 14 award categories, you can apply for four if you practice in the UK or Ireland and eight if you are based in Scotland.

Find out more and register on the SOC site. 

2025 Optician Awards

Nominations are now open for the Optician Awards 2025 in London on 13 December.

The awards are free to enter for practices, organisations and individuals in the UK and Ireland who meet the category criteria.

Three new categories are in the line-up this year: Eye Health Campaign of the Year, Dry Eye Practice of the Year, and Hearing Care Practice of the Year.

Learn more and enter by the 29 August deadline.

College and AOP repeat calls for sight tests for drivers

All optical sector bodies have long recommended sight tests for drivers, including in written evidence to the Government's Strategic Framework for Road Safety in 2012. To date, vision testing requirements have not materially changed, despite some high-profile deaths and families of victims calling for change. The College of Optometrists and AOP have issued a statement, again calling for change.

At a glance

• Northern Ireland publishes GOS data for Q1 2025/26. The data show 684 optometrists working across 266 practices delivered 117,626 sight tests, 292 LES 1 and 170 LES 2 episodes. There were also 467 OHT visits and 13,926 PEARS episodes.
• The latest Welsh ophthalmology waiting time data shows 162,286 patients were assessed as Health Risk Factor R1, with just under 50% seen within the target waiting time.
• The GOC tweets that it has updated its Speaking up guidance following the changes made to its Standards of Practice.
• Clinical Management Guidelines (CMGs) from the College of Optometrists remain open-source and available to all UK optometrists. In addition, the Scottish Government said it will continue to make CMG-based Community Eyecare Guidelines (CEG) available. Read more.
• SLT by optometrists is safe, says Lisa M Young, a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry.

Policy updates

• Parliamentary research briefing into NHS productivity reports that the English NHS is still to recover to pre-pandemic levels, with productivity  5-11% lower now than it was in 2019/20.
• NHS England has asked ICBs to review GP payments after agreeing to increase funding for GP pay rises, as decided earlier in the year. In response, GPs will see total compensation increase by 1.2%, in addition to the 2.8% uplift already applied to the contract for 2025/26.
• Alan Milburn says people must see the NHS as one part of a health ecosystem, says the HSJ.