New CAA/JAR Class 2 Eyesight vs NPPL

[eharding]

Apologies if this has been done to death elsewhere, but;

I started PPL training in March, and at that time I understood
that I would not qualify for a JAR Class 2 medical since my left
eye was -5.25, and the JAR requirements (at the time) that for
below -5.00 stability had to be shown for 4 years...and my
opticians (bless them) had lost my records from more that 2
years ago (but at the time, they told me they *might* be in
store somewhere, and they would try to find them). So, I went
the NPPL route & qualified a couple of weeks ago (51 hours).

I checked with the opticians last week - no joy on the records,
so I'd resigned myself I'd have to wait at least a couple of years
before I could try for a JAR-PPL, IMC etc etc.

Lo and behold, I follow a link here on pprune today to the new
CAA regulations, the new Class 2 limit is -8.00, and there's no
mention of any stability requirement. Hooray!....so, does

a) Anybody know why the limit was relaxed, and the 4 year
requirement dropped (its also disappeared from the JAA
website as well)...

b) (Not strictly medical) NPPL -> JAR requires an extra 15 hours
"instruction". Does anybody know exactly what this "instruction"
entails. My instructor for the NPPL (at White Waltham) took me
through the JAR syllabus anyway, since the NPPL course only
lacks radio nav aids, and not covering use of them seemed
foolish. Does any Pilot-Under-Tuition time logged after
qualification count? (I've just signed up for the AOPA aerobatics
course in a Cap-10b, plus a few hours getting checked out on
the C172).

Thanks,

Ed.