Section 123: Persons performing primary ophthalmic services, National Health Service Act 2006

Regulations may provide that a health care professional of a prescribed description may not perform any primary ophthalmic service for which the Board is responsible unless he is included in a list maintained under the regulations by NHS England.

For the purposes of this section—

"health care professional" means a person who is a member of a profession regulated by a body mentioned in section 25(3) of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 (c. 17),

the Board is responsible for an ophthalmic service if it secures its provision by or under any enactment.

Regulations under this section may make provision in relation to lists under this section and in particular as to—

the preparation, maintenance and publication of a list,

eligibility for inclusion in a list,

applications for inclusion (including provision ... for the procedure for applications and the documents to be supplied on application),

the grounds on which an application for inclusion may or must be granted or refused,

requirements with which a person included in a list must comply (including the declaration of financial interests and gifts and other benefits),

suspension or removal from a list (including provision for the grounds for, and consequences of, suspension or removal),

circumstances in which a person included in a list may not withdraw from it,

payments to be made in respect of a person suspended from a list (including provision for the amount of the payment, or the method of calculating the payment, to be determined by the Secretary of State or a person appointed by him),

the criteria to be applied in making decisions under the regulations,

appeals against decisions made by NHS England under the regulations, and

disclosure of information about applicants for inclusion, grants or refusals of applications or suspensions or removals,

and may make any provision corresponding to anything in sections 151 to 159.

Regulations under this section may, in particular, also provide for—

a person's inclusion in a list to be subject to conditions determined by NHS England,

NHS England to vary the conditions or impose different ones,

the consequences of failing to comply with a condition (including removal from a list),

the review by NHS England of decisions made by it by virtue of the regulations.

The imposition of such conditions must be with a view to—

preventing any prejudice to the efficiency of the services to which a list relates, or

preventing fraud.

Regulations under this section may, in particular, also prescribe the qualifications and experience which a medical practitioner who applies for inclusion in a list under this section must have, and may—

provide for the practitioner to show to the satisfaction of a committee recognised by the Secretary of State for the purpose that he possesses such qualifications and experience,

confer on a person who is dissatisfied with the determination of such a committee a right of appeal to a committee appointed by the Secretary of State, and

provide for anything which appears to the Secretary of State to be appropriate in connection with that right of appeal.

Regulations making provision as to the matters referred to in subsection (3)(k) may in particular authorise the disclosure of information—

by NHS England to the Secretary of State, and

by the Secretary of State to NHS England.

Section 123: Persons performing primary ophthalmic services

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