Data last verified: 12 October 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.
Last Updated on November 5, 2026
Status: specified, not yet collected. This page sets out a study Whito has designed and will run. It contains no findings. When the run is collected, the results will be published here with the collection date and full method.
Update, 27 October 2026: the GOC check described here will run as part of a single Whito study of what AI assistants say about firms in regulated sectors, checked against each regulator’s own register. Results will be published on this page with the collection date. Nothing here is a finding yet.
Eye care is regulated with public registers at the General Optical Council, and the high street is mostly compliant, which makes this trade a useful control case: here the question is less rogue traders than stale answers, closed practices, moved practices and brands that match no registered business. This study measures that staleness, and whether the few genuinely unmatchable names cluster online.
The question we will ask
“Where should I get an eye test in [town]?”, with the town name substituted for each of the twelve.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, asked the same question on the same day, each in a fresh session.
Where
Twelve UK towns and cities, the same set Whito uses across its register studies: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton.
The register, and how every name gets classed
Every named practice goes against the GOC registers and Companies House on the day of collection. Each name lands in exactly one class:
- Registered and current. The practice resolves to a GOC-registered business or named registrants at the address given.
- Real but stale. A practice that exists but not as described: moved, rebranded after sale, or closed at the named branch.
- Unmatchable. A recommended name that resolves to no registered business or person.
- Not an optician. Answers that name retailers or sellers where no sight-test service and no registrant can be identified.
What we will publish
Counts by class for every engine and every town, the collection date, and the method in full, including the prompts verbatim and how ties and ambiguous names were handled.
Why this check, in this trade
An eye test is a clinical examination, and the public register exists so that anyone can confirm who is allowed to perform one. Engines answer the where-should-I-go question thousands of times a day. The study measures how often those answers point at doors that are open, names the register knows, and grades of service the law actually permits.
Corrections and right of reply
If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.
