General Optical Council

Fitness to practise complaints

IMPORTANT NOTE: April 2020

We are continuing to process fitness to practise complaints during the current emergency and anyone wishing to raise a concern should do so.

We ask that, if possible, complaints are submitted electronically to ftp@optical.org.

This will enable us to respond quicker.

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Assistance with making a complaint

If you require additional support to help you make a complaint, please telephone us on 0207 580 3898 or email us at ftp@optical.org. 

How to complain about an optician

This booklet is available to download:

How to complain about an optician

To receive a paper copy of this booklet, contact our Fitness to practise team .

To make a complaint about a registrant, the first step is to fill in the Referral Form, ensuring you complete the final page in full. 

[Electronic Communication: Please note that we will sometimes use a secure communication system called Egress to communicate with you via email. This will require you to log into the Egress secure portal to view our communications. Details of how to do this will be provided.]  

Acceptance Criteria

We assess all new referrals against our published Acceptance Criteria. The criteria help us to decide whether or not a referral constitutes an allegation that a registrant's fitness to practise is impaired: 

Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance Criteria for Businesses

 The GOC will not investigate referrals that do not meet its Acceptance Criteria.

Referral Form 

When completing the Referral Form (below) you need to provide details to enable us to gather evidence about your complaint. The details we need include information about any relevant documents and the identity of any witnesses.

You can complete the form electronically.

If you would rather complete the form by hand, please choose the pdf version.

  GOC Referral Form (Word) May 2020   (version to complete electronically)

GOC Referral Form (PDF) May 2020    (version to complete by hand)