Medical practitioner – Fitness to practice. On the true construction of s 8 of the Opticians Act 1989, it had been open to the appellant General Optical Council's Fitness to Practise Committee (FTPC) to find that the respondent's retirement as an optometrist did not count in his favour concerning his fitness to practise, and to make a finding of impairment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, so ruled in allowing the Council's appeal against a judge's order quashing the FTPC's decision that the respondent's name should be erased from its register. The court held that the judge had erred in his approach to impairment. Accordingly, the FTPC's finding of impairment was reinstated. The order for erasure was not restored since the parties agreed to allow the respondent to withdraw his name from the register.