Lifetime registration numbers

As of 1 April 2021, we introduced a new numbering system for the following groups of registrants applying for registration on the GOC register:

• new registrants joining our register as students; 
• new registrants joining our qualified register as optometrists or dispensing opticians, having successfully applied via the non-UK registration process; 
• new registrants joining our register as corporate bodies; 
• registrants joining the qualified register having previously been student registrants; 
• individuals who restore to our register, for example, after a career break or after being removed from the register for failure to meet our CET requirements; and 
• business registrants who restore to our register. 

Only registrants listed above will be affected by the changes. They will be given a ‘lifetime’ registration number that they will retain during their professional career. We will retain the prefixes before the number to identify whether a registrant is a student optometrist, a student dispensing optician, an optometrist, a dispensing optician, or an optical business.

Existing registrants will not be affected and will retain their current GOC registration number.