General Optical Council

This section contains advice and guidance on how to search the online opticians registers.

We have tried to make the registers as easy to use as possible. However, if you cannot find what you are looking for, please contact our registration team on 020 7580 3898 option 1, or email superinfo@optical.org

What are the registers?
Searching for an individual
Searching for a practice
Searching for a business registrant (body corporate)
What will my search results show?
What does the registration number mean?
What is a specialty? 
Qualifications glossary

What are the registers?

The register is a list of the individual practitioners who are qualified and fit to practise optometry or dispensing optics in the UK. Optometrists and dispensing opticians must be registered with us to practise. There is also a register of students who are fit to train as either optometrists or dispensing opticians, and a register of bodies corporate that are fit to carry on business as optometrists or dispensing opticians in the UK.

We set standards for education and professional competence, as well as standards of behaviour that every registered optometrist and dispensing optician must keep to. We treat failure to meet these standards very seriously. Anyone who is not registered but continues to practise as an optometrist or dispensing optician in the UK is breaking the law.

You can use the opticians registers to search for an individual practitioner (optometrist, dispensing optician or student), opticians’ practices or registered businesses (body corporate).

To search for a registered optometrist or dispensing optician, including students

• Go to the home page 
• In the left hand Quick Links panel, click on ‘Search the registers’ 
• Under the heading, ‘What are you searching for?’ select ‘registered optometrist or dispensing optician, including students’
• Into the relevant boxes, enter one or more of the following criteria: first name (or just initial), surname, GOC number, gender (male or female) 
  Click the ‘search’ button.

To search for an optician in a specific geographic location

• Go to the home page 
• Click on ‘Search the registers’ 
• Under the heading, ‘What are you searching for?’ select ‘optician's practice in your area’ 
• Enter the postcode where you want to locate a practice. To limit or widen your search, select the distance from that postcode (in kilometers) you want to include within the search area. For example, you might want to search for a practice in BS1 3XE. The search will automatically display practices that are a maximum of 1km away from that postcode. To widen your search to surrounding areas outside BS1 3XE, select the appropriate distance in kilometers.
• Click the ‘search’ button.

Please note: Only UK postcodes can be entered. The search will work if you enter just the first three-digits of a postcode. If you are entering a full six-digit postcode it must be entered with a space separating each set of three digits eg W1G 8DJ.

A practice will only appear on this list if a registered practitioner has elected the premises to be their registered practice address.

To search for a registered business (body corporate)

• Go to the home page
• Click on ‘Search the registers’ 
• Under the heading, ‘What are you searching for?’ select ‘registered business (body corporate)’ 
• Into the relevant boxes, enter the company name AND/OR GOC number 
• Click the ‘search’ button.

What will my search results show?

The search results will display a maximum of 10 records per page. If there are more than ten records that match your search criteria, the number of results pages is shown in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. To browse each results page click on the individual page number in the list, or click ‘Next’.

Please note the following:

• We are unable to give out telephone numbers or personal contact details for registrants. 
• If you wish to contact an individual registrant or a registered practice by telephone, you should be able to find their practice telephone number in your local telephone directory, through directory enquiries, or in an online directory like Scoot or Yell.com. 
• We will only provide details of people who have kept their registration up to date. If a practitioner’s registration has lapsed, or if they have been permanently removed from the register, their details will not appear in your search results.

Searching for an individual practitioner

When you are searching the registers by surname only, where there is more than one registrant with the specified surname, entries are listed alphabetically by first name. For example, if you are searching for an optometrist whose surname is Smith, the search results would display Alan Smith before Zoe Smith.

The following details are displayed for each registrant who fits your search criteria:

• Full name 
• GOC number - for an explanation of what the prefix means, see what does the registration number mean?
• Qualifications - to find out what the letters mean, see the qualifications glossary 
• Status – Most registrants will be ‘active’. ‘Conditional’ indicates the individual has been the subject of disciplinary action resulting in conditions to their registration. Visit the past hearings pages for decisions and transcripts detailing those conditions. If you cannot find the person you are looking for, enter their name in the search the site box. Or call our registration team on 020 7580 3898. Someone who has been suspended or erased as a result of a disciplinary hearing will not appear on the register
• Location – the town in which the practitioner’s registered address is located. This could be a home address which is different from their practice address  
• Registration date – the date the practitioner first registered with the GOC. If the individual’s registration has lapsed at any time, this will be the date they were most recently restored to the register
• Specialty - details of any specialist qualifications gained, that enable the listed registrant to perform additional duties to those of a normal optometrist or dispensing optician. If the registrant has no specialist qualifications this field will not appear. Find out more in the specialty qualifications section.
• Practice address(es) – the individual’s registered practice address or addresses. Practitioners have to provide details of any practice where they work for more than eight days a year.
• Please note: If the practice address field is blank, the listed registrant does not have a permanent practice address. The listed registrant will be either a locum practitioner (ie working in multiple practices on a temporary or occasional basis) or a student.

Searching for a practice in a specific geographic location

The results will display every registered optometrist, dispensing optician or student who has provided a registered practice address within 1km of that specific postcode. If you have widened your search to surrounding areas eg within 20km of a postcode, the results will display all the practitioners who have provided a registered practice address within that distance of your chosen postcode.

The following details will be displayed for each registrant:

• Name of the practice 
• Full practice address 
• Distance in kilometers from the postcode entered in your search 
• Map showing the location of the listed practice – click on the ‘Google Maps’ link to view a map of that postcode.

Searching for a registered business (body corporate)

• Company name 
• GOC number - for an explanation of what the prefix means, go to the What does the registration number mean? section 
• Location – town in which the practice is registered
• Registration date – date the company was entered onto the bodies corporate register 
• Please note: the bodies corporate register is not a list of every optician’s practice in the UK. Read more about bodies corporate. [link registration>BC)

What does the registration number mean?

Every practitioner registered with us has their own unique registration number. We have listed below what each prefix means, and the duties the listed professional is qualified to perform.

If they are a specialist practitioner, they may be qualified to perform additional duties (see What is a specialty?)

O1 - the person listed is a qualified optometrist. They can examine eyes, test sight and prescribe spectacles or contact lenses. They can use certain diagnostic drugs, and issue written orders for pharmacists to supply certain ocular medicines to patients.

D – the person listed is a qualified dispensing optician. They can fit and supply spectacles, including to under 16s, and dispense low vision aids to partially-sighted patients.

SO – the person listed is a student optometrist. They can examine eyes, test sight and prescribe spectacles or contact lenses only when supervised by a registered optometrist.

SD – the person listed is a student dispensing optician. They can fit and supply spectacles to under 16s or partially-sighted patients, only when supervised by a registered dispensing optician.

CO – the company listed is a body corporate that can carry out business in optometry and dispensing optics, as defined above.

What is a specialty?