Beauticians dropped from new cosmetic filler register

Beauticians have been banned from joining a new register designed to make getting injected with fillers safer.

The voluntary register was opened by the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners in April to everyone trained to a high standard.

But now it will include only those with medical training, after doctors and nurses threatened to boycott it.

The joint council said two beauticians had applied to be listed, alongside 20 clinicians with a further 105 pending.

However, the register will continue to list beauticians for other treatments, such as laser and chemical peels.

David Sines, who chairs the joint council, told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme there was no way of checking whether beauticians had been adequately trained to inject fillers.

"We have found there are no training organisations or programmes in place in the UK to enable beauticians to qualify to the level we require."

"We are arguing for statutory regulation.

"We cannot enforce these standards without that."

A Department of Health and Social Care official said: "The government takes the regulation of cosmetic procedures very seriously and we are currently exploring options to strengthen regulation."

The register was backed by the actress Lesley Ash, who was ridiculed in the press for her "trout pout" after her lips were injected with industrial fillers.

She said: "I think it's a fantastic thing that is happening now with the register. And I think a lot of it had to do with the publicity I got.

"Women having their lips filled were saying, 'I don't want to look like Lesley Ash.'"

Sue Ibrahim, from the British Association of Aesthetic Nurses, Doctors and Dentists, said the inclusion of beauticians for filler treatments had put the public at risk.