Registered Blind and Partially Sighted People, England 2022-23

This report may be of interest to members of the public, policy officials and other stakeholders to make local and national comparisons and to monitor the quality and effectiveness of services.

The Care Act 2014 Section 77 subsection 1 states that ‘A local authority must establish and maintain a register of sight-impaired and severely sight-impaired adults who are ordinarily resident in its area’.

The Children Act 1989 Schedule 2 Part I Section 2 subsection 1 states that ‘Every local authority shall open and maintain a register of disabled children within their area’.

People that have a Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI) from an ophthalmologist choose whether to be included in their local authority’s register of blind or partially sighted people; registration is not automatic and so not everybody that has been certified as having vision impairment is recorded on a local authority register. This publication covers those who have registered, in England, as at 31^st March 2023.

This data collection is carried out every three years by NHS England covering a 12 month period; the reporting period for this data collection is 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The data collected relates to either the total number of people on local authority registers at the end of the reporting period, or new registrations where data is collected on people who are new to the register within the year of the reporting period i.e. for a one‑year period.