Hansard

I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing me to leave the chamber before the debate finishes.

I, too, congratulate Stuart McMillan on bringing this important issue to the chamber. In France, anyone who wishes to offer medical aesthetic treatment must be registered with the board of the National Chamber of Physicians. In Belgium, practitioners must be doctors, and under-18s must have permission from a parent or guardian before they can have treatment. In Poland, practitioners need to qualify in aesthetic medicine. In Scotland, though, someone who goes on Instagram today will be presented with numerous practitioners who offer aesthetic treatments, very few of whom display medical qualifications and all of whom complete work on very young people.

Such procedures are far from non-invasive. Lip, nose and chin fillers and anti-wrinkle fillers all involve injecting Botox into people’s faces, which can have severe consequences when treatments are botched. A practitioner who does not operate from a medically clean site can cause infections, which means that patients will require further care from our NHS down the line. The treatment can also cause bruising that is much worse than should be normal for such procedures. Nodules can form due to the use of cheap filler, which can cause complications years after a procedure has been completed. This year, there was a story involving 15 women being hospitalised after having beef gelatine injected into them.

Despite those risks, the practice of non-surgical procedures only seems to grow in Scotland. Since under-18s have been banned from having medical aesthetic treatments in England, we have heard reports of more and more children coming to Scotland for injections. That is deeply concerning. I join other members in calling for the provision of such treatment to be limited to those who are over 18. Most such procedures are not conducted by medical professionals. It is possible for lay practitioners to complete training in just one day. No medical body has oversight of the industry. It is therefore clear that we are in a dangerous situation.

I join other members in welcoming the Scottish Government’s launch of a consultation on a proposal to regulate the sector, but it is long overdue. France, which I mentioned earlier, first legislated on the issue in 2009. In 2013, the Keogh report called for improved regulation of the cosmetic industry in the UK. However, the Scottish Government did not even consult on the matter until 2020, when respondents agreed that we needed further regulation. We heard the result of that consultation two years ago. I hope that the Scottish Government’s new consultation will open the door to meaningful progress being made. Too many people who want to improve their confidence are being left with their mental and physical health deteriorating further.