The Scottish Government confirmed yesterday (May 6) that it will introduce a Non-surgical Cosmetic Procedures Bill to regulate certain aesthetic treatments.
The government introduced its Year Five Legislative Programme as part of the Programme for Government 2025-26: Building The Best Future For Scotland, which included the new Bill.
The programme stated that the new Bill will regulate the delivery of certain non-surgical procedures offered for cosmetic or lifestyle purposes to support the safety of those who undergo the procedures.
The Bill will be designed to ensure that certain procedures are required to be delivered from suitable premises registered with an appropriate body, and will make provision to support the enforcement of appropriate standards for service providers.
The Bill will be introduced to Scottish Parliament before May 2026. More information will be made available as it progresses through Parliament.
The announcement of the bill follows a consultation into a licensing scheme for non-surgical aesthetic procedures.
The consultation, which can be viewed here, opened on December 20, 2024, and closed on February 14, 2025.
In a similar format to the England consultation which ran from September to October 2023, the Scottish Government consultation broke down the procedures into three key groups:
• Group 1 means the procedure can be carried out in licensed premises or HIS-regulated settings by a trained and licensed practitioner who is not a healthcare professional.
• Group 2 should only be done in an HIS-regulated setting by a trained practitioner who is not a healthcare professional. Still, such practitioners should be supervised by an appropriate healthcare professional.
• Group 3 should be done in an HIS-regulated setting and only by an appropriate healthcare professional.
The proposed framework included the following treatments in Group 1: microneedling, chemical peels that only affect the outermost level of skin, IPL, LED therapy, lasers for tattoo removal, and laser hair removal.
Treatments in Group 2 were proposed to include mesotherapy, botulinum toxin injections, dermal fillers, and any other injections of a product, even if it is not a drug or toxin, for lifestyle or cosmetic purposes.
Group 2 also included medium-depth peels, photo rejuvenation, radiofrequency, HIFU and cryolipolisis.
Meanwhile, the proposed Group 3 line-up includes PRP and other blood-derived injections, injection microsclerotherapy, injection lipolysis, dermal microcoring, hay fever injections, any IV procedure, dermal fillers for augmentation (e.g. liquid BBL), deeper chemical peels such as phenol peels, laser treatments that target the deeper dermis, carboxytherapy, cellulite subcision, electrocautery (electrolysis), cryotherapy, cryocautery and thread lifts.
Group 3 also covered all group 1 or 2 procedures if carried out in an intimate area (except hair removal and not including procedures such as tattooing and skin piercing which are already licenced).
As with the England consultation, beauty professionals have expressed concern that comparatively low-risk procedures such as mesotherapy and radiofrequency would require the oversight of a healthcare professional if the framework were to proceed in its current format.
Meanwhile, procedures such as electrolysis, traditionally carried out by advanced beauty therapists, would be reclassified as safe for medics only.
It is not yet confirmed which treatments will fall into which groups if the Bill is passed to enforce regulation in Scotland.
