Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to chapter 5 of NHS England and Nesta's document entitled Transforming elective care services: ophthalmology, published in January 2019, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of direct referrals from optometrists on reducing NHS (a) waiting times and (b) costs.

Legislation presently allows optometrists to directly refer patients into secondary care services.

No assessment has been made of direct referrals on waiting times or costs.