Opticians
(Registration) (Jersey) Law 1962[1]
A LAW requiring the registration of
ophthalmic and dispensing opticians, to provide for the enrolment of bodies
corporate carrying on business as opticians, to regulate the practice of
opticians and the conduct by such bodies corporate of their business as
opticians, and for purposes connected therewith
Commencement
[see endnotes]
1 Interpretation
(1) In
this Law, unless the context otherwise requires –
“Commission” means the Health and Social Care Commission
established by Article 35 of the Regulation of Care (Jersey) Law 2014[2];
“Court” means the
Inferior Number of the Royal Court;
“dispensing optician”
means an individual engaged or proposing to engage in the fitting and supply of
optical appliances;
“enrolled” means
enrolled in either of the lists;
“list” means the
list of bodies corporate carrying on business as optometrists or the list of
bodies corporate carrying on business as dispensing opticians;
“optical appliance”
means an appliance designed to correct, remedy or relieve a defect of sight;
“Opticians Act”
means the Opticians Act 1989 of the
United Kingdom;
“optometrist” means
an individual engaged or proposing to engage in the testing of sight (otherwise
than as a registered medical practitioner), whether or not the individual is
also engaged or proposing to engage in the fitting and supply of optical
appliances;
“prescribed” means
prescribed by Order made by the Chief Minister under this Law;
“Register” means
either of the registers of optometrists or the register of dispensing opticians
kept in pursuance of the Opticians Act;
“registered dispensing optician”
means an individual registered as a dispensing optician in pursuance of this Law
or of the Law repealed by this Law;
“registered medical practitioner”
has the same meaning as in the Medical
Practitioners (Registration) (Jersey) Law 1960;[3]
“registered optician”
means a registered optometrist or a registered dispensing optician, and “registration” shall be construed
accordingly;
“registered optometrist” means an individual registered
as an optometrist under this Law (or as an ophthalmic optician under this law
up to the commencement of the Opticians (Registration) (Amendment No. 2)
(Jersey) Law 2017[4]);
“test the sight”
means test the sight with the object of determining whether there is any and,
if so, what defect of sight and of correcting, remedying or relieving any such
defect of an anatomical or physiological nature by means of an optical appliance
prescribed on the basis of the determination.[5]
(2) References
in this Law to any other enactment (including an enactment of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom) shall be construed as references thereto, as amended and as
including references thereto as extended, by or under any subsequent enactment.
2 Individuals
who may be registered
(1) No
individual shall be registered as an optometrist in pursuance of this Law
unless he or she is duly registered as an optometrist in pursuance of the
Opticians Act.[6]
(2) No
individual shall be registered as a dispensing optician in pursuance of this Law
unless he or she is duly registered as a dispensing optician in pursuance of
the Opticians Act.
3 Registration
(1) An
application for registration in pursuance of this Law shall be made to the
Court and shall be accompanied by either –
(a)
(i) a
copy of the last official edition of the Register published in accordance with
section 11 of the Opticians Act, and
(ii) the certificate
or certificates of qualification by virtue of which the applicant was
registered in the Register; or
(b) a
certificate under the hand of the Registrar of the General Optical Council to
the effect that the applicant is registered in the Register and specifying the
qualifications by virtue of which he or she was so registered.[7]
(2) Where
the applicant is an alien, the Court may require the applicant to produce a
duly authenticated certificate of good character.
(3) The
qualifications by virtue of which an individual is registered in pursuance of
this Law shall be set out in the act of the Court ordering the registration.
4 Roll
of registered opticians to be kept
The Judicial Greffier shall make and keep
posted in the Lobby of the Royal Court House a roll of registered optometrists and
a roll of registered dispensing opticians, showing their names and addresses
and the qualifications by virtue of which they were registered.[8]
5 Penalty
for abuse of certificates or fraudulently obtaining registration
If any individual –
(a) with
intent to deceive, forges, or uses, or lends to or allows to be used by any
other individual, a certificate of registration or other certificate issued
under the Opticians Act, or a certificate of qualification entitling the
individual to be registered in the Register, or makes or has in the
individual’s possession a document so closely resembling any such
certificate as aforesaid as to be calculated to deceive; or
(b) obtains
or attempts to obtain the registration of the individual as an optician in
pursuance of this Law by assuming the name or qualifications of another
individual,
he or she shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2
years or to a fine, or both.[9]
6 Lists
of bodies corporate carrying on business as opticians
(1) The
Commission shall continue to maintain a list of bodies corporate carrying on
business as optometrists and a list of bodies corporate carrying on business as
dispensing opticians, each containing the names, principal places of business
and such other particulars as may be prescribed of the bodies which are
entitled under the following provisions of this Law to be enrolled therein and
which apply in the prescribed manner to be so enrolled.[10]
(2) A
body corporate shall be entitled to be enrolled in the appropriate
list –
(a) if
it satisfies the Commission that a majority of its directors are registered
opticians or, in the case of a body corporate having only one director, that the
director is a registered optician; or
(b) if
it satisfies the Commission that the greater part of its business consists of
activities other than the testing of sight and the fitting and supply of
optical appliances and that so much of its business as consists of the testing
of sight is carried on under the management of a registered optometrist and that
so much thereof as consists of the fitting and supply of optical appliances is
carried on under the management of a registered optician;
(c) if
it is registered in the register of bodies corporate carrying on business as an
optometrist or a dispensing optician, or both, maintained under section 9
of the Opticians Act.[11]
7 Supplementary
provisions as to lists
(1) The
Chief Minister may by Order make provision with respect to the form and keeping
of lists and the making of entries and alterations therein and, in
particular –
(a) regulating
the making of applications for enrolment or for transfer from one list to
another, and providing for the evidence to be produced, in support of any such
application;
(b) providing
for the notification to the Commission of any change in the particulars
entitling a body corporate to be enrolled;
(c) prescribing
a fee to be charged on the entry of a name in, or the restoration of a name to,
the list;
(d) prescribing
a fee to be charged in respect of the retention in the list of any name in any
year subsequent to the year in which that name was first entered in the list;
(e) providing
that the entry of a name in, or the restoration of a name to, the list may be
refused until a fee prescribed for the entry or restoration has been paid, and
that the name of a body corporate may be erased from the list if, after the
prescribed notices and warnings, the body corporate fails to pay the fee
prescribed in respect of the retention of that name in the list;
(f) prescribing
anything required or authorized to be prescribed by the provisions of this Law
relating to the lists.[12]
(2) An
Order under this Article which provides for the erasure of a name from the list
on failure to pay a fee shall provide for its restoration thereto on the making
of the prescribed application in that behalf and on payment of that fee and any
additional fee prescribed in respect of the restoration.
(3) An
Order under this Article prescribing fees may provide for the charging of
different fees in different classes of cases.
(4) [13]
8 Procedure
where the names of opticians are erased from the register kept by the registrar
of the General Optical Council
The Court shall, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that
the registration of any registered optician be cancelled where the name of the
optician has been erased from the Register by virtue of Part 2A of the
Opticians Act.[14]
9 Power
of court to cancel registration or to order erasure from list
(1) The
Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the registration
of any registered optician be cancelled where the optician –
(a) has
been convicted in Jersey of a crime or misdemeanour or has been convicted,
either in Her Majesty’s dominions or elsewhere, of an offence which, if
committed in Jersey, would be a crime or misdemeanour; or
(b) has
been guilty of infamous or disgraceful conduct in a professional respect.
(2) The
Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the name of any
enrolled body corporate be erased from the list where –
(a) the
body corporate has been convicted of an offence under this Law, or of aiding,
abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of, or inciting another person
to commit, such an offence; or
(b) the
Court is of opinion that the conditions, or any of the conditions, for the
enrolment of the body corporate are no longer satisfied.
(3) Where
a registered optician dies while he or she is either a director of an enrolled
body corporate or the manager of that part of the business of an enrolled body
corporate which consists of the testing of sight or the fitting and supply of
optical appliances, he or she shall be deemed, for the purposes of this paragraph,
to have continued to be a director of that body or a manager of that part of
its business, as the case may be, until the expiration of the 3 months
beginning with the date of his or her death or until a director or manager is
appointed in his or her place, whichever first occurs.
(4) The
Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the registration
of any registered optician be cancelled or that the name of any enrolled body
corporate be erased from the list where it appears to the Court that the
optician or body corporate has contravened or failed to comply with the
provisions of any Order made under Article 18 and that the contravention
or failure is such as to render the optician unfit to be registered or the body
corporate unfit to have its name on the list.
(5) The
Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the registration
of any registered optician be cancelled or that the name of any enrolled body
corporate be erased from the list where it appears to the Court –
(a) that
the optician or body corporate is engaged in the fitting and supply of optical
appliances; and
(b) that
the arrangements made by the optician or body corporate for carrying on the
optician’s practice or the optician or body corporate’s business
are not such as to secure that the fitting and supply of optical appliances in
the course of that practice or business are carried out by, or under the
supervision of, a registered optometrist engaged or proposing to engage both in
the testing of sight and in the fitting and supply of optical appliances, or a
registered dispensing optician.[15]
(6) The
Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the name of any
enrolled body corporate be erased from the list where –
(a) the
registration of a director of the body corporate is cancelled under Article 8
or under paragraph (1) of this Article;
(b) a
director of the body corporate is convicted of an offence under this Law; or
(c) the
registration of a registered optician employed by the body corporate is
cancelled under Article 8 or under paragraph (1) of this Article and
the act or omission constituting the ground on which it was cancelled was
instigated or connived at by a director of the body corporate, or, if the act
or omission was a continuing act or omission, a director of the body corporate
had, or reasonably ought to have had, knowledge of the continuance thereof:
Provided that the Court shall not take a case into consideration
during any period within which proceedings by way of appeal may be brought
which may result in this paragraph being rendered inapplicable in that case or
while any such proceedings are pending.
(7) Where
it appears to the Court that a body corporate which carries on business as an optometrist
or dispensing optician at more than one set of premises is liable to have its
name erased from the list under this Article and that the events giving rise to
the liability were confined, or substantially confined, to a particular set of
premises, the Court may, instead of ordering the erasure of the name of the
body corporate from the list, order that the body corporate shall not use the
title of optometrist, dispensing optician, registered optician or enrolled
optician in connection with that set of premises; and if at any time thereafter
it appears to the Court that the body corporate has contravened an order in
force under this paragraph, the Court may, if it thinks fit, order the erasure
of the name of the body corporate from the list.[16]
(8) No order
shall be made under this Article unless the registered optician or body
corporate concerned has been given an opportunity of showing cause why the order
should not be made.
10 Cancellation of
registration and erasure from list on grounds of fraud or error
The Court may, on the motion of the Attorney General, order that the
registration of any registered optician be cancelled or that the name of any
enrolled body corporate be erased from the list where it appears to the Court
that the registration of the optician or the entry of the name in the list has
been fraudulently made or that any matter relating to the registration or entry
is incorrect.
11 Re-registration
of individuals and restoration of names erased
(1) Where
the registration of an individual has been cancelled or the name of a body
corporate has been erased from the list in pursuance of an order made under Article 8,
9 or 10, that individual shall not be registered or, as the case may be, the
name of that body corporate shall not be entered in either of the lists unless
the Court, on an application made in that behalf, has rescinded the order.
(2) The
reference in paragraph (1) of this Article to an order made under Article 9
shall include a reference to an order of the Royal Court made under Article 5
of the Opticians (Registration) (Jersey) Law 1951[17].
12 Restriction on
testing of sight
(1) An
individual who is not a registered medical practitioner or a registered optometrist
shall not test the sight of another individual.[18]
(1A) However, an
individual is exempt from paragraph (1) if the individual is –
(a) training
as an optometrist; and
(b) exempt
from section 24(1) of the Opticians Act by virtue of rules made under
section 24(3) of that Act.[19]
(2) Any
individual who contravenes the provisions of this Article shall be liable to a
fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.[20]
13 Restriction on
sale of optical appliances or zero powers contact lenses[21]
(1) Subject
to the following provisions of this Article, a person shall not sell any
optical appliance or zero powered contact lens unless the sale is effected by
or under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner or of a
registered optician.[22]
(2) Paragraph
(1) shall not apply to the sale of an optical appliance or zero powered
contact lens –
(a) to
a registered medical practitioner, registered optician or enrolled body
corporate for the purposes of his or her practice or of his, her or its
business;
(b) to
a manufacturer of or dealer in optical appliances or zero powered contact lens for
the purposes of his or her business;
(c) to
any authority or person carrying on a hospital, clinic, nursing home or other
institution providing medical or surgical treatment;
(d) to
a department of Her Majesty’s Government or of the States; or
(e) for
the purposes of its export.[23]
(3) Paragraph (1)
of this Article shall not apply to a sale for a person not under the age of 16
of spectacles which have two single vision lenses of the same positive
spherical power not exceeding 4 dioptres, where the sale is wholly for the
purpose of correcting, remedying or relieving the condition known as
presbyopia.[24]
(4) For
the purposes of paragraph (3) of this Article, lenses are to be taken to
have the same positive spherical power if the difference between them is within
the tolerances relating to the power of such lenses specified from time to time
in the British Standard Specification.[25]
(5) On
any prosecution for selling an optical appliance in contravention of paragraph (1),
it shall be a defence for the defendant to prove that the defendant sold the
appliance as an antique article and that the defendant did not know, and had no
reason to believe, that the appliance was bought for the purpose of being used
for correcting, remedying or relieving a defect of sight.
(6) Any
person who contravenes the provisions of this Article shall be liable to a fine
not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.[26]
13A No obligation to
buy optical appliance from any particular person[27]
A patient shall not be required, as a condition of having his or her
sight tested, to agree to buy from any particular person any optical appliance
that the testing of his or her sight may show that the patient is required to
wear or use.
14 Restriction on
use of optician’s titles
(1) Any
individual –
(a) who
takes or uses any of the following titles (either alone or in combination with
any other words) in the circumstances mentioned in relation thereto, that is to
say, the title of optometrist when the individual is not a registered optometrist,
or the title of dispensing optician, registered optician or enrolled optician
when the individual is not a registered optician; or
(b) who
takes or uses any name, title, addition or description falsely implying, or
otherwise pretends, that the individual is a registered optician,
shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of 12 months and to
a fine of level 3 on the standard scale.[28]
(2) Any body corporate –
(a) which
takes or uses any of the following titles (either alone or in combination with
any other words) in the circumstances mentioned in relation thereto, that is to
say, the title of optometrist when it is not enrolled in the list of bodies
corporate carrying on business as optometrists or the title of dispensing
optician when it is not enrolled in the list of bodies corporate carrying on
business as dispensing opticians, or which takes or uses the title of
registered optician or enrolled optician, when it is not enrolled in either of
the lists; or
(b) which
takes or uses any name, title, addition or description falsely implying, or
otherwise pretends, that it is enrolled in either of the lists,
shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of 12 months and to
a fine of level 3 on the standard scale.[29]
15 Provision as to
death or bankruptcy of registered optician
(1) Where
a registered optician dies at a time when he or she is carrying on business or
is in practice as an optician, then during the 3 years beginning with his or
her death or such longer period as the Commission may in any particular case
allow, Article 14 shall not operate to prevent the registered
optician’s personal representatives, widow or any of his or her children
on behalf of the widow or any of his or her children from taking or using in
relation to that business or practice, but in conjunction with the name in
which he or she carried it on, any title which he or she was entitled to take
or use immediately before his or her death.[30]
(2) Where
a registered optician becomes bankrupt at a time when he or she is carrying on
business or is in practice as an optician, then, during the 3 years beginning
with the bankruptcy, Article 14 shall not operate to prevent the person
entrusted with the administration of the registered optician’s property
from taking or using in relation to that business or practice, but in
conjunction with the name in which the registered optician carried it on, any
title which the registered optician was entitled to take or use immediately
before the bankruptcy.
(3) Where,
by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this Article, any title in relation to
the business or practice of a deceased optician or an optician who has become
bankrupt is taken or used, and an offence under Article 12 or 13 is
committed in the course of that business or practice, the Commission may, if it
thinks fit, direct that the said paragraph (1) or, as the case may be, the
said paragraph (2) shall cease to apply in relation to that business or
practice.[31]
16 Offences by
bodies corporate
Where an offence under this Law which has been committed by a body
corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of,
or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager,
secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any individual
purporting to act in any such capacity, he or she, as well as the body
corporate, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to
be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
17 Consultation with
registered opticians
(1) The
Commission shall nominate not less than 2 and not more than 4 registered
opticians, with whom it shall consult before making any Order under Article 18,
and from whom the Commission may seek advice on the discharge of its functions
generally under this Law.[32]
(2) Any
such nomination may be terminated at any time by the Commission should it so
think fit.[33]
18 Miscellaneous
matters with respect to which Orders may be made
(1) Subject
to the provisions of Article 17 and paragraph (2) of this Article,
the Chief Minister may by Order prohibit or regulate –
(a) the
use by registered opticians and enrolled bodies corporate of any means of
giving publicity, whether by advertisements or not, to their practice or
business of ophthalmic or dispensing opticians;
(b) the
carrying on of practice or business by registered opticians and enrolled bodies
corporate under names other than those under which they are registered or
enrolled;
(c) the
administration of drugs by registered opticians, enrolled bodies corporate and
their employees in the course of their practice or business of ophthalmic or
dispensing opticians;
(d) the
practice of orthoptics by registered opticians,
enrolled bodies corporate and their employees;
(e) the
prescription, supply and fitting by registered opticians, enrolled bodies
corporate and their employees of contact lenses.[34]
(2) The
power of the Chief Minister to make Orders by virtue of paragraph (1)(a)
shall not include power to prohibit the display, for the purposes of the
practice or business of a registered optician or enrolled body corporate, of
optical appliances or parts of optical appliances on premises where the fitting
and supply of optical appliances is being carried on as part of that business
or practice or in any building comprising those premises.[35]
(3) Subject
to the provisions of Article 17, the Chief Minister may by Order provide
that where it appears to a registered optician that an individual consulting
him or her is suffering from an injury or disease of the eye, the optician
shall, except in an emergency or where that individual is consulting him or her
for the purpose of being given treatment in accordance with any Order made
under paragraph (1)(d) or any such other cases as may be prescribed by the
Order, being cases in which it is, owing to special circumstances,
impracticable or inexpedient so to do, take the prescribed steps to refer that
individual to a registered medical practitioner for advice and treatment.[36]
(4) Any
Order made under this Article may make different provision for different
classes of cases.
19 General provision
as to orders
The Subordinate Legislation
(Jersey) Law 1960,[37] shall apply to Orders made
under this Law.
20 Citation
This Law may be cited as the Opticians (Registration) (Jersey) Law 1962.