Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve the planning and prioritisation of eye care services.

NHS England is responsible for commissioning primary care National Health Service sight tests for eligible groups, including children, people aged 60 and over and those on certain income-related benefits. The NHS sight test is a demand led service and the latest statistical figures show that there were 13.0 million NHS sight tests carried out during 2016/17.

Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning secondary care hospital eye services and are also able to commission eye care services in the community, over and above the NHS sight test, to meet local need. CCGs are required, for all services they commission, including ophthalmic services, to assess the health needs of their local population using joint strategic needs assessments.

The introduction of Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships will bring NHS providers, commissioners, local authorities, and other health and care services together to propose how they, at local level, can further improve the way that health and care is planned and delivered in a more person-centred and coordinated way.