GovWire

The government brought forward an amendment to the Health and Care Act 2022 which gives the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care the power to bring into force a licensing scheme in England for non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that consumers who choose to undergo a non-surgical cosmetic procedure can be confident that the treatment they receive is safe and of a high standard. Under the proposed scheme, practitioners will need to be licensed to perform specific procedures and the premises from which they operate will also need to be licensed.

In this consultation we are seeking your views on:

• the types of treatments that we propose are included within the licensing scheme
• whether any procedures should be carried out only either by qualified and regulated healthcare professionals or under their clinical oversight
• whether procedures permitted to be carried out only by qualified and regulated healthcare professionals should only be carried out by Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered providers
• whether potential age restrictions should be imposed on those receiving specified procedures, in line with age restrictions on botulinum toxin injections, cosmetic fillers, tattoos, teeth whitening and sunbed use