The Government has set out proposals for limiting who can carry out high-risk cosmetic procedures such as liquid Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs), vampire facials and chemical peels.
Under plans first announced last year and now out for consultation, only specified, qualified and trained healthcare professionals will be able to carry out cosmetic surgery and certain injectable and laser treatments.
This includes doctors, dentists, and some independent prescribing nurses, midwives or pharmacists who have completed accredited training.
Only doctors would be allowed to carry out cosmetic surgery, including BBL procedures where dermal filler is injected into the buttocks.
Procedures would be restricted to people aged 18 with exceptions for NHS provision or treatment of a medical condition.
Breaching the regulations would be a criminal offence with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) taking enforcement action with fixed fines up to £4,000.
It follows a series of incidents where people had dangerous complications, permanent scarring or even died after undergoing high-risk treatments from botched treatments done by individuals with little or no medical training.
Alice Webb, a mother-of-five from Gloucestershire, died within hours of having a liquid BBL in 2024.
And in the same year Sasha Dean, from Bedfordshire, was left in a coma with sepsis after receiving the same procedure in a private house, the BBC reported.
Announcing the consultation, the Government said it wanted to crackdown on ‘cosmetic cowboys’.
With surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures becoming ‘increasingly blurred’, the new rules will ‘close a dangerous loophole that has seen ill-qualified practitioners working out of hotel rooms performing high-risk procedures without regulatory oversight’, the Government added.
Health minister Karin Smyth said: ‘If you’re planning to undergo a major cosmetic procedure, you deserve to know you’re in safe hands – not risking your life with a rogue operator.
‘These changes mean that only properly trained professionals can carry out the most serious, high-risk procedures, and that young people will be shielded from treatments that can go badly wrong.
‘We want to drive cosmetic cowboys out of the market and raise standards across the board, giving reputable businesses a fair chance to thrive by helping people identify safe, qualified providers they can trust.’
The consultation, open until the 13 January, is seeking responses from clinicians, regulators, businesses, the public on the proposals before plans go through the Parliamentary process in spring 2027.
There are also separate plans to implement a licensing scheme to ensure that clinics delivering Botox, lip filler and other lower-risk treatments meet strict safety standards.
Mr Keith Allison, from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said the consultation was long overdue and welcome but added the proposals did not go far enough.
‘Ministers must ensure they do not create a new loophole in patient protection by regulating non-surgical cosmetic procedures more robustly than cosmetic surgery itself.
‘A doctor should not be able to carry out cosmetic surgery simply because they hold a medical license’
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