To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of (a) the annual cost to the Exchequer of abolishing all charges for eye checks and (b) the number of people who paid a charge for such checks wholly or in part in the last year for which figures are available. (207521)

There were an estimated 15.3 million sight tests carried out in England during 2006-07. Of these 10.5 million were funded by the national health service with 4.8 million being paid for privately. For 4,471 of the private sight tests, the NHS provided partial help. If the 4.8 million privately funded sight tests were paid for by the NHS at the 2007-08 sight test fee of £19.32 the cost would be an additional £93 million a year. There would be additional costs if the number of tests increased as a result of their being funded by the NHS.