Why license non-medics to perform non-surgical cosmetic treatments at all?

Jeremy Hunt’s committee has recommended a licensing regime for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in the light of an unacceptably high rate of complications after treatments by non-medical practitioners.1 Calls for tight legislation to prevent unskilled practitioners from carrying out these potentially dangerous procedures, and limiting this area of practice to medics alone, are not new.2Nothing has changed in this area of bad practice, and Hunt is not optimistic that legislation will become a government priority. Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain this longstanding government inaction. In my opinion, one important reason has been overlooked: government finance. Most non-surgical procedures carried out by doctors and nurses do not attract VAT when a medical diagnosis has been reached before treatment—this does not apply to non-medical practitioners who cannot claim to be offering medical treatments.34 In this respect, governmental inaction mirrors the public disgrace of failure to implement recommendations for the obesity pandemic.56…
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