General Optical Council

As part of our duty to protect the public, we are able to take action against registrants who do not meet the standards we set for performance, education and conduct. These powers are given to us by parliament, through the Opticians Act.

We can take action if a registrant’s fitness to practise may be impaired due to:

• Misconduct
• Deficient professional performance
• A caution or conviction in relation to a criminal offence
• Physical or mental health problems
• A finding of impaired fitness to practise by another regulatory body 

We consider every complaint carefully, on a case by case basis. If a registrant’s fitness to practise is found to be impaired there are various sanctions we can impose.

Criminal offences
We may also prosecute criminal offences established by the Opticians Act. Although the Council has no statutory role in prosecuting, we do take action in some cases where prosecution is in the public interest. Visit the legislation section for more details about criminal offences.