Paragraph 2 Interpretation

In these Rules—

• “administrator” means—

  1. (a)

     any person who is for the time being appointed under rule 3(a), or

  2. (b)

     in a case falling within rule 3(b), the Council;

• “approved event” means a continuing professional development event which is approved under rule 9(1);

• “CPD point” means a general CPD point or a specialist CPD point;

• “CPD requirement” means any requirement which a registrant is required to satisfy under Part 4;

• “contact lens specialty” means the specialty described in columns 2 and 3 of the entry at line A of the Table in rule 10 of the General Optical Council (Registration) Rules 2005^f1;

• “continuing professional development” and “CPD” mean the scheme for the continuing professional development of registered optometrists and registered dispensing opticians which is administered as specified under rule 3;

• “continuing professional development event” means a learning event, lecture, seminar, curriculum or other programme or method of study that is relevant to the needs and professional standards of optometrists or dispensing opticians which is either an approved event provided by a listed provider or an event provided by a person other than a listed provider;

• “dispensing optician competencies” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development;

• “general CPD point” means a CPD point as specified as such under rule 9(2);

• “interactive event” has the meaning given in rule 9(4);

• “listed provider” means a person whose application under rule 5 for their name to be added to the list of event providers is granted under rule 8;

• “optometrist competencies” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development;

• “peer review event” has the meaning given in rule 9(5);

• “personal development plan” means a document used by a registrant to plan their learning needs;

• “reference number”, in relation to an approved event, means a number allocated to that event under rule 9(1)(b);

• “reflection activity” means planned reflection, based on the content of a registrant’s personal development plan, which is documented;

• “register” means the register referred to in section 7 of the 1989 Act (registers of opticians) in the form specified in rule 21 of the Registration Rules;

• “registrant” means a registered optometrist or registered dispensing optician;

• “registrar” means the registrar of the Council referred to in section 1(3) of the 1989 Act (constitution and functions of the Council);

• “Registration Rules” means the General Optical Council (Registration) Rules 2005^f2;

• “relevant period” means each consecutive period of three years, commencing with 1st January 2013;

• “shortfall in CPD requirements” means a situation where in any relevant period a registrant has failed to obtain the required CPD points required by rules 11 and 12 for that period; “specialist CPD point” means a CPD point specified as such under rule 9(3);

• “specialty” means a specialty or level of proficiency particulars of which may, by virtue of rule 10 of the Registration Rules, be entered in a register against a registrant’s name;

• “specialty competencies” means competencies established by the Council as being those which a person needs to be able to demonstrate for the purposes of continuing professional development in order to be permitted to practise that specialty; and

• “year” means a calendar year.

In these Rules, references to the type of CPD point specified or obtained in relation to an approved event are references to whether the CPD points specified or obtained for that event are general CPD points or specialist CPD points.

In these Rules any reference to a numbered section is a reference to the section of the 1989 Act.