If you read that cosmetic procedures in England are about to be licensed, you have read something that has been true, in the sense of being proposed, for several years. Understanding the difference between a power, a consultation and a scheme in force is the point of this article, because that difference determines what protects you today.
What the Act actually did
The Health and Care Act 2022 contains a provision enabling the Secretary of State to make regulations establishing a licensing scheme for non surgical cosmetic procedures in England. The design is enabling: it creates the legal ability to make a scheme, and leaves the substance of the scheme, which procedures are covered, what qualifications are required, what standards apply to premises, to regulations that would follow.
This drafting approach is common and it has a consequence. Until the regulations are made and brought into force, nothing changes on the ground. The Act's existence does not itself require anyone to be licensed.
What a scheme would likely cover
The consultation carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care set out a proposed approach based on risk. Procedures would be grouped by the level of risk they present, with the more serious groups restricted to qualified healthcare professionals and, in the highest risk group, potentially to regulated healthcare professionals working in regulated premises. Lower risk procedures would be available to licensed practitioners meeting specified training standards.
A licence would attach both to the individual practitioner and to the premises, which is a meaningful design choice: it creates local authority enforcement, an inspection route, and a licence that can be removed.
We are deliberately not stating which procedures would fall into which group, because that is what regulations would decide and they have not been made. Reporting proposals as settled outcomes is one of the ways this subject gets misdescribed.
What you are entitled to while there is no scheme
- To ask, and be told, whether the person treating you is on a statutory professional register.
- To a service performed with reasonable care and skill under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
- To accurate marketing claims, including about qualifications and accreditation, under the CAP Code.
- To report misleading claims about licensing or accreditation to the ASA or to Trading Standards.
- To check the status of the legislation yourself on legislation.gov.uk, free.
A licensing scheme would set a minimum standard. It would not replace any of the checks on this site.
Why it would matter
The gap it addresses is the one described in what the law actually requires: there is currently no requirement that a person injecting an adult holds any qualification or appears on any register. A licensing scheme would create, for the first time in England, an activity based control rather than a profession based one. It would apply to what is being done, not only to who happens to be doing it.
It would also create an enforcement route that does not currently exist. At present, if an unregistered injector harms someone, the routes are civil claim, possible criminal proceedings in serious cases, and Trading Standards for consumer law issues. There is no regulator that can simply stop them practising, because there is nothing to withdraw.
A clinic advertising that it is licensed under the new rules, or fully compliant with the incoming licensing scheme. No scheme is in force in England, so no such licence exists. A claim to hold one is a claim to hold nothing.
What exists in the meantime
Several things fill part of the gap, imperfectly.
Professional regulation applies to registered clinicians and is enforceable through their regulators. Prescription only medicine controls put a prescriber in the chain for botulinum toxin. CQC registration applies to some cosmetic services in England, principally surgical ones and those treating disease, disorder or injury. Local authority licensing applies to some specific activities in some areas. Voluntary registers apply their own checks to members who choose to join.
None of these is a general licensing scheme, and describing any of them as one would misrepresent the position.
How to check the current status yourself
Two primary sources will tell you where things stand. The text of the Health and Care Act 2022 on legislation.gov.uk shows the provision and, importantly, whether it has been commenced. Any regulations made under it would also appear on legislation.gov.uk as a statutory instrument. Government consultation responses are published on gov.uk.
We would encourage checking those directly rather than relying on any publication, including this one. Statutory status changes, and secondary reporting lags behind it.
The other nations are on their own timelines
The Health and Care Act power is an England power. Scotland has consulted separately on regulating non surgical cosmetic procedures, and Wales has an existing special procedures licensing regime under the Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 with its own scope. Announcements about one nation are frequently reported as though they applied to the whole UK. They do not. See the nations guide.
What this means for a decision you are making now
Assume the protection does not exist, because it does not. Do the checks yourself. If a scheme comes into force, the checks will still be worth doing, because a licence would establish a floor rather than a ceiling, and the questions in our question set reach well above any floor a licensing scheme would set.