Liquid butt lifts targeted in clampdown on England’s cosmetic ‘wild west’
Ministers have announced a clampdown on “cowboy” cosmetic procedures, including liquid Brazilian butt lifts, with stricter rules on who is allowed to perform the procedures in England,Wes Streeting, the health secretary, plans to introduce legislation next year restricting who can access and perform aesthetic treatments,Labour has warned that the industry is a “wild west” because of a lack of regulation around who can administer treatments such as dermatological filler and Botox injections,At present a licence is not required to perform such procedures in England,Health department officials said botched treatments had left people “maimed” and suffering from “dangerous complications, permanent scarring and even death”.
Ministers plan to introduce new rules whereby only qualified healthcare professionals can deliver high-risk procedures such as liquid Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs).Providers will need to be regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and those found to be breaking rules could face sanctions and financial penalties.Clinics offering lower-risk procedures such as Botox and fillers will need to be licensed by their local authority.The proposals will be subject to a consultation early next year that will seek views on the types of procedures that should be covered by the new regulations.Liquid BBLs involve injecting filler into the buttocks to lift them and make them look bigger or more rounded.
The procedure can cause serious side-effects such as blood clots and sepsis,A 33-year-old woman, Alice Webb, died last year after complications from a suspected liquid BBL in Gloucestershire,Last month, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warned that fat injections, BBLs, Botox and fillers were being offered by untrained people in places such as public toilets,Health officials launched an investigation after several people had reactions to Botox-like injections this year,The government urged people always to ask for providers’ qualifications and insurance and to be wary of “suspiciously cheap” offers.
Restrictions on high-risk treatments will be introduced via an amendment to the CQC’s regulations, while licensing for providers of lower-risk procedures will be introduced via secondary legislation.The government also plans to bring in restrictions for under-18s on high-risk cosmetic procedures unless these have been approved by a healthcare professional.It became illegal for children to receive Botox and dermal fillers in England in 2021.The Scottish government announced plans in May to regulate aesthetic treatments, but there have been no moves to tighten regulation in Wales or Northern Ireland.“The government’s move to regulate non-surgical aesthetic procedures is an important first step forward for patient safety,” said Tim Mitchell, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons.
But Mitchell stressed that regulation should go further, by ensuring that procedures such as buttock or breast augmentation are performed only by surgeons who have been recognised by the Cosmetic Surgery Board.“This will ensure high standards of care, reduce avoidable harm and give patients the confidence they deserve when seeking aesthetic treatments,” he said.Sue Davies, the head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said the changes would “mean little without a serious overhaul of consumer enforcement teams such as trading standards, which are currently stretched too thinly to properly investigate these rogue traders who are putting consumers at risk”.Millie Kendall, the chief executive of the British Beauty Council, which represents the industry, said the changes “will help instil confidence as well as helping to prevent the normalisation of horror stories that have become synonymous with our sector”.Karin Smyth, a health minister, said: “The cosmetics industry has been plagued by a wild west of dodgy practitioners and procedures.
There are countless horror stories of cosmetic cowboys causing serious, catastrophic damage.“This government is taking action to protect those seeking treatments, support honest and competent practitioners, and root out the cowboys as part of our plan for change.“This isn’t about stopping anyone from getting treatments – it’s about preventing rogue operators from exploiting people at the expense of their safety and keeping people safe.We’re giving them peace of mind and reducing the cost to the NHS of fixing botched procedures.”
UK car drivers: share your memories and photos of your convertible
According to a new study, convertibles have dwindled to a 25-year low with only 16 new models for sale across the UK’s most popular car manufacturers. SUVs are taking the rap for the decline of convertibles in Britain as people move towards favouring bulkier vehicles.Data from CarGurus UK found that in 2024 there were only 12,173 new convertibles registered in the UK compared to 94,484 in 2004. One of cinema’s most iconic cars is probably the 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible that Thelma and Louise drove on their their adventures.We would like to hear from people who have, or previously had, a convertible
OpenAI in talks on share sale that would price it above Elon Musk’s SpaceX
OpenAI is reportedly in early talks about a sale of shares held by current and former employees that would value it at half a trillion dollars, overtaking Elon Musk’s SpaceX.If the transaction goes ahead, the value of the ChatGPT developer would rise by about two-thirds, from $300bn (£225bn).Musk’s rocket companyis currently worth $350bn and is reportedly circling a $400bn price tag in a new fundraising.Bloomberg, which first reported the OpenAI talks, said existing investors, including Thrive Capital, have approached the company about buying employee shares. Other investors in OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, include the Japanese investment company SoftBank, which led the $300bn financing, and Microsoft
Lib Dems call for urgent regulation of YouTube ads after wave of scams
The Liberal Democrats are calling for urgent regulation of YouTube advertising after scams including deepfakes, impersonated public figures and fraudulent investment claims were found to be spreading on the platform with little oversight.The party said YouTube’s adverts remain largely unchecked by independent regulators, despite new data from Ofcom showing the platform has overtaken ITV in weekly UK viewership and continues to dominate children’s media consumption.Among the recent scams onYouTube was a series of ads using an AI-generated voice and likeness of the consumer champion Martin Lewis to promote a cryptocurrency scheme, despite Lewis having no involvement. The videos, which have drawn thousands of complaints on Reddit and X, mislead users into thinking they are receiving financial advice from a trusted source.Other viewers have reported false product claims, scam diet pills and fake competitions
OpenAI takes on Meta and DeepSeek with free and customisable AI models
OpenAI is taking on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Chinese rival DeepSeek by launching its own freely available artificial intelligence models.The ChatGPT developer has announced two “open weight” large language models, which are free to download and can be customised by developers.Meta’s Llama models are available on a similar basis, and OpenAI’s move marks a departure from ChatGPT, which is based on a “closed” model that cannot be customised.Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said the company was excited to add to a stack of freely available AI models “based on democratic values … and for wide benefit”.He added: “We’re excited to make this model, the result of billions of dollars of research, available to the world to get AI into the hands of the most people possible
Tech’s trillion-dollar binge, Palantir’s empire and women’s privacy under attack
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, tech companies are spending amounts of money that stretch the limits of the imagination. Donald Trump’s administration is spending more money with data analytics and surveillance firm Palantir. And women on both sides of the Pacific face the extreme difficulty of keeping intimate moments private online.In last week’s edition of the newsletter, my colleagues wrote about the upshot of Google’s earnings call: lots of money earned, but, more importantly lots of money spent on AI
Tesla shareholders sue Elon Musk for allegedly hyping up faltering Robotaxi
Tesla shareholders sued Elon Musk and the electric vehicle maker for allegedly concealing the significant risk posed by company’s self-driving vehicles.The proposed class-action suit, which accuses Musk and Tesla of securities fraud, was filed on Monday night. Tesla conducted its first public test of its self-driving taxis in late June near the company’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. That test showed the vehicles speeding, braking suddenly, driving over a curb, entering the wrong lane and dropping off passengers in the middle of multilane roads. The National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA), the main transportation regulator in the US, is investigating the Robotaxi’s pilot test
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British athletes could be allowed to compete in future Islamic Solidarity Games