Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to regulate cosmetic surgery providers.

Information data on the number of unsuccessful cosmetic surgery operations requiring further corrective surgery in the National Health Service is not held centrally.

In April 2013, the independent Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions, chaired by Sir Bruce Keogh, was published. A copy has already been placed in the Library.

We fully accept the principles of the Keogh review and the overwhelming majority of the recommendations. The response looks to strengthen standards through better training and robust qualifications, and explores how far supervision from regulated professionals might support self-regulation of the sector.

Departmental officials are working with key delivery partners including the Royal College of Surgeons, who have set up an inter-specialty committee to ensure standards for cosmetic surgery. The College is also working with the General Medical Council on a code of ethical conduct. Health Education England is leading on a review of training for providers of non-surgical interventions, such as botulinum toxin and dermal filler injections.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, all cosmetic surgery providers who provide a regulated activity have to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality below which care should never fall. The CQC has a wide range of enforcement powers that it can use if a provider is not compliant with the fundamental standards of care.