British Beauty Council joins Government to address future of aesthetics regulation

The British Beauty Council is working with the Government to help draft legislation for beauty practitioners who operate in England, which will make it an offence to perform particular beauty procedures without a license.

The Health and Care Act 2022, which received royal assent in April, gave the Government powers to bring forward a licensing scheme for beauty practitioners in England. This scheme will be introduced via secondary legislation and once in force, will bring in the beauty procedure offence.

Details around how the licensing scheme will work is to be decided by separate legislation in the coming years, with the British Beauty Council and Joint Council for Cosmetics Practitioners working to help draft the legislation.

The council is launching a series of tools to help equip practitioners and consumers with all the information for best practice whilst performing and undergoing procedures. The new tools include:

• The future of aesthetics webinar.
• The practitioner must know Q&A.
• The consumer must know Q&A.
• Top tips for anyone looking to have a non-surgical cosmetic procedure.

Victoria Brownlie, Chief Policy Officer at the British Beauty Council, said: “As an industry worth billions, it is important to ensure those choosing treatments can do so safely and with confidence. The legislation is being introduced to reduce the risk of harm to the public caused by badly performed non-surgical cosmetic procedures and ensure a level playing field on standards of practice.

“However, a lot of misinformation has been bandied about around what will and won’t be included in the license. The pure fact is that there is still much to be decided. But what we do know, we have outlined in the webinar and Q&As and will of course continue to update as we continue our work with Government on this.”