Toxic jabs and deadly bum lifts: We need urgent licensing of cosmetic injectables

I have regularly highlighted the growing public risk: social media‑fuelled demand for Botox and fillers is soaring, yet no legal guardrails exist to prevent non‑medically trained individuals from administering prescription‑only treatments.

The Health and Social Care Act 2022 empowers the Government to legislate mandatory licensing - yet no formal scheme has been initiated⁠.

The need for tighter regulation has never been clearer. Just last month, 28 people in County Durham and Darlington were diagnosed with botulism—a rare and potentially fatal neurological illness—after receiving what turned out to be fake or contaminated Botulinum toxin injections from unregulated providers⁠.

More than one of these cases results in intensive care stays, with morbidity to the patient and a high financial cost to the already stretched NHS.

With annual national botulism cases typically in single digits, this spike highlights the devastating scale of harm: patients endured drooping eyelids, double vision, difficulty swallowing—and several required hospitalisation, where even hospital anti‑toxin stocks were nearly exhausted in one night⁠.

These harrowing cases reveal alarming truths. Fake treatments are infiltrating high‑street salons, unregulated pop‑up clinics, and illicit online marketplaces.

Botulinum toxin is a prescription‑only medicine and should be administered only by qualified healthcare professionals; lax oversight is now costing lives⁠.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and UK Health Security Agency are investigating⁠, but enforcement alone cannot fill the growing void.

I propose a clear path forward: urgent introduction of a mandatory licensing framework for all non‑surgical cosmetic injections, overseen by the Care Quality Commission with medical oversight.

This would require providers to hold a verifiable clinical qualification, adhere to regular safety inspections, and be bound by strict clinical audit and accountability standards.

A public register—backed by meaningful penalties—would help empower consumers to make safe, informed choices.

I have personally been involved in the management of aesthetic complications, both in hospital as an anaesthetist facilitating major surgery, and in my aesthetics clinic where patient have been let down by poor advice from non-medical injectors.

This is not just limited to Botulinum toxin injections, but unregulated dermal fillers, fat dissolvers and fake ‘skinny jabs’. Last year, a client of a non-medic injector passed away following a non-surgical ‘Brazilian butt lift’.

The recent botulism outbreak is a clarion call: we must act to protect the public from further harm.

___________________________________________-

Dr Ed Robinson is a medical aesthetics doctor and anaesthetic doctor based in Hale and Harley Street.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk