Committee publication · Report · 18 February 2026 · HC 869
11th Report – Cosmetic procedures
From: Women and Equalities Committee
Inquiry: Health impacts of breast implants and other cosmetic procedures
Government response deadline: 18 April 2026
Summary
The Women and Equalities Committee's 11th Report examines safety in cosmetic procedures, focusing on breast implants, non-surgical treatments, cosmetic tourism, and body image pressures. The committee finds that regulatory frameworks have failed to keep pace with rising demand, allowing inadequately trained practitioners to operate unsupervised. It calls for mandatory implant registry participation, a cooling-off period before surgery, immediate bans on high-risk procedures like liquid BBLs, and legislative controls over non-surgical cosmetic practitioners.
Key findings
- The PIP breast implant scandal affected 47,000 UK women with substandard implants; many report ongoing physical and psychological harm 13+ years later, but official assurances of safety are based on limited research and dismiss mental health impacts.
- The Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry is not mandatory and covers only ~80% of implants; without mandatory participation and annual publication of adverse outcome data, surgeons cannot provide patients with comprehensive risk information for informed consent.
- No regulation exists for who can perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures (Botox, fillers, laser therapy); procedures reportedly occur in Airbnbs, hotel rooms, sheds and toilets, causing serious harm; liquid BBLs have resulted in fatalities.
- Textured breast implants carry elevated risk of BIA-ALCL (rare immune-system cancer); other countries ban them, but the UK relies on informed consent despite estimated underreporting due to lack of routine pathology screening in private clinics.
- Body image among young women has worsened; 26% of girls aged 11–16 and 48% of 17–21-year-olds would consider cosmetic procedures; social media, filters, and digitally altered advertising drive demand and distort risk perception.
Recommendations
- The NHS should remove PIP implants from women who wish to have them explanted, in line with its own guidance.
- The Government should introduce mandatory recording of breast implant and explant procedures and adverse outcomes in the Breast and Cosmetic Implant Registry by end of 2026, with annual publication of adverse outcome data by implant type.
- The Government should ensure improvements to the registry are not delayed by NHS England's planned abolition.
- A mandatory cooling-off period of at least two weeks should be introduced between initial consultation and breast implant surgery.
- The new post-surveillance regime for breast implants must include regular testing of approved implants to ensure continued compliance with safety standards.
- The Government should increase transparency on medical device approval, making available not only what devices are approved but the evidence base underpinning approval decisions.
- The Government must legislate to introduce a licensing system for lower-risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures within this Parliament, allowing only suitably qualified practitioners to perform them.
- High-harm procedures such as liquid Brazilian butt lift (BBL) should be banned immediately without further consultation.
- The Government should increase public education on risks of cosmetic tourism and how to pursue it safely.
- Evidence-based body image and social media literacy programmes should be adopted into school curricula to tackle growing pressures on children to alter their bodies.
Tone
CriticalTopics
health-regulationmedical-devicespatient-safetybody-imagecosmetic-procedures
Key actors
Sarah Owen, Women and Equalities Committee, Professor Michael Coleman, Professor Carl Heneghan, Dr Alison Cave, Professor Aidan Fowler, Professor Prabath Nanayakkara, MHRA
Notable line
“Regulation has not kept pace, allowing inadequately trained individuals to carry out high risk procedures, often with devastating consequences.”
Key Quotes
“Once silicone is released into the body, we know that silicone or siloxanes—which are the components of the implants—appear to have an effect known as the adjuvant effect. They stimulate the immune system in many, though not all, women.”
“Anybody who says no evidence is basically saying we've systematically failed to take this seriously and collect the right data and the right evidence. This is an area that is under-researched.”
“I remain traumatised, I will never be able to live a fulfilled normal everyday life. PIP breast implants have affected my life. In a way I do not have a life, I feel I simply exist, suffering with continual pain I endure daily along with fatigue, discomfort and severe exhaustion.”
“The problem with BIA-ALCL is that you have to look for it to find it. When most private clinics remove the implant and remove the capsule, they do not check it under a microscope. So there is definitely an under-reporting of ALCL.”
“Most patients who come to us are frustrated and angry, and I understand that because they have been sick for, let us say, 10 years. These women lose their jobs, they lose their relationships, they are divorced, they are about 50 years old, and they have nothing.”
“Obviously we are continuing to look at any evidence as it emerges, but we have no current evidence that PIP implants carry greater risk of either cancer or other symptoms than any other breast implant.”
“Currently, there is no regulation as to who can perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures. These are defined as procedures that do not require incisions and are commonly used to refer to injectables, such a Botox or dermal fillers, laser therapy or chemical peels.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗