The Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP) is calling for the statutory regulation of cosmetic treatments involving injectables, fillers, invasive lasers, ‘deep’ peels and other invasive treatments and says they should only be administered by regulated healthcare professionals.

The JCCP’s call for tighter regulation comes on the day the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Beauty, Aesthetics and Wellbeing publishes its report on a long running inquiry into aesthetic cosmetic procedures.  The APPG recommends a national licensing regime to be introduced across England with certain minimum qualification standards for practitioners carrying out aesthetic treatments but it falls short of statutory regulation.

The JCCP has witnessed a growing number of harmful complications arising from the performance of such treatments many of which have been the result of poor treatment by inappropriately qualified and trained practitioners.

 “After a lengthy period of discussion with practitioners, consumers, patients, stakeholders and politicians we have concluded that in the interests of patient safety and public protection, high-risk and potentially harmful procedures, such as the insertion of dermal fillers or the injection of toxins should only be administered by appropriately trained healthcare professionals.

 I welcome the APPG report, and I would urge the Health Minister, Nadine Dorries MP, to act on the recommendations as quickly as possible.  It is clear, however, that the government needs to go further.  It is increasingly apparent that at this time high-risk procedures, like the injection of toxins and the insertion of dermal fillers should only be administered by healthcare professionals who have the necessary skills, qualifications and competence in these areas. In terms of the regulation of products, the JCCP welcomes the APPG’s recommendation that the regulation of dermal fillers must be brought into line with injectable toxins as a Prescription Only Device”.

– Prof. David Sines CBE, the Chair of the JCCP 

In addition, the JCCP is calling for:

• A new system of oversight, scrutiny and governance to ensure that Local Authorities and the Health and Safety Executive can take action against practitioners who compromise consumer safety.
• The legal definition of what constitutes a ‘medical-related’ service and what is an elective aesthetic non-surgical cosmetic treatment.
• A Government enforced system of annual data collection on types of aesthetic treatments, numbers of practitioners, premises, training courses and complications to inform the evidence base of a robust system of public protection in the UK.
• National, mandatory education and training standards for all practitioners who practise in the industry that build on the JCCP and CPSA Competency Framework (2018).
• The legal enforcement of the requirement for all practitioners to have an appropriate level of medical indemnity insurance and to provide a transparent redress scheme for service users.
• National scrutiny and action to prevent the promotion through social media of unsafe, unethical and exaggerated messaging about products, education, training and aesthetic service provision.
• A framework of statutory regulation to ensure that practitioners who cannot meet the required standards for safe and effective practice will not be able to practise legally.

Over the past 10 years there has been a significant rise in the number and type of aesthetic procedures performed in the UK and many practitioners are performing treatments that put patients/members of the public at risk without possessing the necessary training, experience or supervisory oversight and supervision.

Access the APPG report here.