Liquid Brazilian butt lifts and other high-risk cosmetic treatments will only be carried out by properly trained professionals under long-awaited government plans for England.

Ministers said they wanted to “drive cosmetic cowboys out of the market” and protect people from treatments “that can go badly wrong”. At present there are no restrictions on who can perform many so-called no-scalpel procedures, which can cause serious harm or death if carried out unsafely.

Under the proposals, high-risk procedures will be banned for under-18s. Rogue providers will face new criminal offences and fixed penalties of up to £4,000.

What will change

Fillers injected into parts of the body other than the face, such as liquid BBLs, will be legally defined as cosmetic surgical procedures. That means only doctors would be allowed to perform them.

Other high-risk non-surgical or wellbeing treatments – including deep chemical peels, so-called vampire facials, dermal micro-coring and some laser procedures – would be restricted to trained doctors, dentists and some nurses, midwives and pharmacists.

A vampire facial involves drawing a patient’s blood, separating out platelet-rich plasma in a centrifuge and injecting it back into the face through tiny needle punctures. Dermal micro-coring removes tiny sections of skin with thin, hollow needles. Chemical peels use a chemical solution to strip away the top layers of skin.

Cosmetic surgery and risky treatments will be banned for under-18s. Lip fillers and Botox for cosmetic purposes on children have already been stopped.

Treatments in sheds and hotel rooms

The government began consulting on changes to the industry in 2023, but campaigners, surgeons and MPs have called for tighter rules for many years. The plans follow repeated accounts of procedures being carried out in holiday rentals, hotel rooms, garden sheds and even public toilets.

Women have described dangerous complications, pain and permanent scarring after treatment by unqualified operators. Alice Webb, a mother of five from Gloucestershire, died within hours of having a liquid BBL in 2024.

In the same year Sasha Dean, from Bedfordshire, was left in a coma after receiving a liquid BBL. Part of her treatment took place in a private house, and she developed sepsis. “Very quickly it turned into a complete nightmare,” she told BBC News. “I had a heart attack, one of my lungs had collapsed, my kidneys were failing. My body was just completely shutting down.”

A liquid BBL is a non-surgical procedure in which dermal fillers are injected into the buttocks to change their size or shape. Unlike surgical buttock lifts, it has until now been open to practitioners with no medical qualifications.

Reaction

Health minister Karin Smyth said: “We want to drive cosmetic cowboys out of the market and raise standards across the board, giving reputable businesses a fair chance to thrive by helping people identify safe, qualified providers they can trust.”

The British Beauty Council said the government should be congratulated for tackling the issue head-on.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England welcomed the proposals but said the consultation was “long overdue” and that the plans did not go far enough. Keith Allison, speaking for the college, warned: “Ministers must ensure they do not create a new loophole in patient protection by regulating non-surgical cosmetic procedures more robustly than cosmetic surgery itself.”

“A doctor should not be able to carry out cosmetic surgery simply because they hold a medical license,” he added.

What happens next

The government will now seek views from doctors, businesses, regulators, the public and other experts on the draft rules before the plans go through Parliament in spring 2027. A separate licensing scheme for Botox clinics in England has already been announced.

The rules differ across the UK. In Scotland, laws passed in March mean cosmetic procedures must be performed by, or alongside, certain healthcare professionals in a registered setting, and non-surgical procedures are banned for under-18s. There are no dedicated regulations covering cosmetic procedures in Wales or Northern Ireland.

For patients in England, the immediate advice from regulators and clinicians remains unchanged: check a practitioner’s qualifications, ask where the treatment will be carried out and be wary of procedures offered at unusually low prices or in non-clinical settings.