# The Opticians Act 1989 (Transitional Provisions) Order 2005, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order makes additional transitional provision in respect of the Opticians Act 1989 (Amendment) Order 2005 (“the Order”), which amends certain provisions in the Opticians Act 1989 (“the Act”): some transitional provisions are included in Schedule 2 to the Order itself.
The transitional provisions in this Order come into force on the same date that relevant provisions of the Order come into force, namely 30th June 2005 (“the relevant date”).
The additional matters provided for in this Order are—
(a) supplementary provision in respect of the transitional provisions already contained in Schedule 2 to the Order concerning fitness to practise allegations made before the relevant date (article 2);
(b) provision in respect of existing registrants to the effect that the requirements of the new section 10A (to have insurance in place during any period of registration) do not apply to a period of registration before the relevant date, and making further provision concerning checking the insurance provision of existing registrants (article 3);
(c) provision for the General Optical Council’s (“the Council's”) approval of training institutions and qualifications in place immediately before the relevant date to continue on and after the relevant date, as if that approval had been given under the new provisions of the Act (article 4);
(d) provision for financial penalty orders that may be imposed under the new section 13H of the Act to be limited to the old maximum penalty in the Act immediately before the relevant date where the matters which resulted in that penalty order took place before the relevant date (article 5);
(e) provision for financial penalty orders imposed under the old provisions of the Act to continue to be recoverable by the Council notwithstanding the repeal of those old provisions (article 6);
(f) provision in respect of on-going suspension orders, erasure orders and directions of the old Disciplinary Committee of the Council to continue on and after the relevant date, notwithstanding the repeal of the provisions in the Act under which they were made (articles 7 to 9);
(g) provision in respect of appeals against disciplinary orders etc where the appeal relates to decisions made by the old Disciplinary Committee before the relevant date (article 10);
(h) provision as to the procedure to be followed by persons seeking restoration to either of the registers maintained by the Council on or after the relevant date, where that person was erased from a register before the relevant date (article 11);
(i) provision maintaining the Disciplinary Committee established under the old section 5 of the Act, notwithstanding the repeal of that section, for the purposes of the functions conferred on it under this Order (article 12); and
(j) provision allowing the Council for the Regulation of Health Care Professionals to refer to court disciplinary orders made by the Disciplinary Committee or the Fitness to Practise Committee in accordance with section 29 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 (article 13).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1472/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/opticians-act-1989-transitional-provisions-order-2005/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.