To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has on the impact of charging for eyesight tests in Trent regional health authority.

The number of national health service sight tests paid for in 1988–89 and 1989–90 by family health services authorities in Trent regional health authority was as follows:

• NHS sight tests
• 1988–89: 1,166,700
• 1989–90 (after entitlement was restricted to certain groups): 514,960

After 1 April 1989, many patients in Trent, as elsewhere, will have had a private eye examination.Departmental statistics are not kept on private sight tests. An independent NOP survey commissioned by the Department indicated that the national total number of sight tests (private and national health service) during the first quarter of 1990 was at the level that would have been expected if trends up to 1987 had been projected forwards.