Exclusive: Action on implants - Government to implement cosmetic surgery controls

Every woman who undergoes a breast implant operation will have the procedure logged on a national register, to help prevent a repeat of the cosmetic surgery scandal which affected tens of thousands in the UK and 400,000 worldwide, The Independent on Sunday reveals today.
The Government's long-awaited response will be published in the new year. The scandal, which involved industrial-grade silicone implants manufactured by the French firm Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP), severely damaged confidence in the wider cosmetic surgery industry when it emerged more than two years ago.
The majority of recommendations in a report into the implant scandal by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, which was published last April, are to be implemented. Chief among them is a statutory National Implant Registry, modelled on the National Joint Registry which records every hip and knee operation, enabling faulty material and procedures to be easily traced.
Training and qualifications for cosmetic surgery procedures will be improved and regulated, while companies will be banned from using aggressive marketing tactics, such as offering breast implants as prizes, two-for-one offers (including "mother and daughter deals") or pressurising time-limited deals. The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) and the General Medical Council (GMC) will create new qualifications and standards for cosmetic surgery, while all surgeons practising in the UK will be required to have professional indemnity.

The registry will be piloted from next month, because ministers wanted to introduce it as soon as possible. The legislation to create a statutory register will be included in the Queen's Speech later in the year.

Earlier this month, Jean-Claude Mas, the boss of PIP, was jailed for four years for aggravated fraud, after a French court heard how he covered up the substandard material used to produce his company's implants.
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