Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Bill

Lord Lansley Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 16th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on bringing this Bill forward and on her excellent presentation, which set out very clearly its purposes and justification. I very much support it.

My noble friend will know, and the House may well recall, that the Bill is in line with one of the recommendations from the Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions led by Sir Bruce Keogh and published in April 2013. Of course, as Secretary of State, I asked him to lead that review back in January 2012, following the PIP breast implant scandal disclosed the previous month. It is fixed in the memory of Health Ministers across the globe—the problems were disclosed by the French Government the day before Christmas Eve, so we all lost our Christmas in 2011. One of the consequences was that the many issues and problems associated with cosmetic interventions and medical devices were exposed. Indeed, the Keogh review did a great deal to help to bring that forward. I think this Bill will be extremely welcome.

While I have this moment, I would mention the Cosmetic Surgery (Standards) Bill in my name, which is way down in the Lords list of Private Members’ Bills. It is not going to have the benefit of the House’s attention in this parliamentary Session; I hope it may in a future one, perhaps even with the benefit of support from the Government at some point. It also follows up one of Bruce Keogh’s recommendations. It was very good that our honourable friend the Member for Sevenoaks was able skilfully to bring this Bill through. I know how difficult it is in another place to get a Private Member’s Bill through, even if one is fortunate to get a place in the ballot.

I briefly mention two other things. First, Kevan Jones, who also supports my Bill, spoke in the other place about the issues associated with advertising cosmetic interventions, increasingly on social media these days, and he was right to do so. That is an issue raised in the review that needs to be followed up. I also hope that, in line with my Bill, the Government will encourage the General Medical Council, regardless of legislation or otherwise, to use the Royal College of Surgeons interspecialty committee’s work on certification for cosmetic surgery to try to ensure that it is indicated on the medical register, so that people can identify who is properly certified and qualified to provide cosmetic interventions.

Bruce Keogh’s review said—I think I quote correctly—that, in

“our view … dermal fillers are a crisis waiting to happen.”

It is not a crisis in respect of which young people should be the victims. I am very glad that my noble friend has brought the Bill forward, and I hope that we will be able to pass it into law before the end of this Session.