Tattooing

(asked on 15th November 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of legislation regulating tattoo parlours.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 29th November 2017

The Department is responsible for the confirmation of byelaws for regulating cosmetic piercing and skin-colouring businesses in England under Section 236 of the Local Government Act 1972.

Local authorities in England are responsible for the regulation of piercing providers, under the Local Government Act 2003 and may implement byelaws. They have powers to regulate the hygiene and cleanliness of the practice of acupuncture and of businesses providing tattooing, semi-permanent skin-colouring, cosmetic piercing and electrolysis under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. In 2006 the Department produced a new consolidated set of model byelaws and updated provisions to reflect current infection control advice and industry practice.

The model byelaws require that an operator ensure that:

- any dye used for tattooing or semi-permanent skin-colouring is sterile and inert; and

- any container used to hold dye for tattooing or semi-permanent skin-colouring is either disposed of at the end of each treatment or is cleaned and sterilized before re-use.

In 2013, a web-based Tattooing and body piercing guidance toolkit was launched, endorsed by Public Health England in collaboration with The Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, The Health and Safety Laboratory, local authorities in England and the tattooing and piercing industry. No more recent assessments of the regulation of tattooing, skin piercing and body modification have been made.

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