FOI/202600534237 · FOI · already published
Information regarding BABTAC and the aesthetics sector: FOI release
Information requested
You have asked us to provide the following information;
1. BABTAC recommendations and influence
Please provide copies of all recommendations, proposals, submissions or requested policy changes made by BABTAC or Lesley Blair MBE concerning Scottish non-surgical cosmetic procedures regulation from 1 January 2019 to the date of this request.
For each recommendation, where recorded, please provide information showing:
whether it was accepted, rejected or amended;
the reason for that decision;
whether it affected practitioner eligibility, premises requirements, supervision, prescribing, training, registration or the ability of practitioners from a beauty background to continue providing treatments.
2. Basis for treating BABTAC as representative of the beauty and aesthetics sector
Please provide all recorded information showing how the Scottish Government determined that BABTAC, or Lesley Blair MBE personally, represented the interests or views of:
beauty therapists;
independent aesthetic practitioners;
practitioners entering aesthetics from a beauty therapy rather than healthcare background;
selfemployed practitioners;
small and micro-businesses providing non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
Please include any assessment, due diligence, stakeholder mapping, membership information, briefing, correspondence or internal discussion used to support that view.
3. Information indicating that BABTAC or Lesley Blair did not represent all independent practitioners
Please provide all recorded information held by the Scottish Government which indicated, or could reasonably have alerted officials or Ministers, that BABTAC or Lesley Blair MBE did not represent the views of all beauty therapists or independent aesthetic practitioners.
This should include recorded information concerning:
objections or representations received from independent practitioners or practitioner organisations which differed from BABTAC's position;
differences between BABTAC's policy position and the position of practitioners who were already trained, insured and lawfully providing aesthetic treatments;
concerns about restrictions affecting practitioners from a non-healthcare background;
concerns about requirements which could prevent established beauty or aesthetic businesses from continuing to provide treatments;
evidence that BABTAC represented only part of the beauty and aesthetics sector rather than the sector as a whole.
4. BABTAC, Lesley Blair and the JCCP
Please provide all recorded information held by the Scottish Government concerning links between BABTAC, Lesley Blair MBE and the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners, including:
any memorandum of understanding, partnership, affiliation or formal working relationship between BABTAC and the JCCP known to the Scottish Government;
Lesley Blair's involvement with any JCCP committee, working group, advisory group or governance structure;
any information concerning her later appointment as a JCCP trustee;
any consideration of whether those links affected the independence of BABTAC's representations to the Scottish Government;
any consideration of whether BABTAC's policy position was aligned with JCCP policy concerning practitioners who were not registered healthcare professionals.
I am asking for information held by the Scottish Government. I am not asking the authority to determine retrospectively whether a conflict existed or to create an opinion that was not recorded at the time.
5. Conflicting stakeholder positions
Please provide all recorded information comparing, discussing or acknowledging differences between the position of BABTAC or Lesley Blair and the position of independent aesthetic practitioners from a beauty background.
Please include representations which concerned:
continued access to practice for established practitioners;
competence and qualification-based eligibility;
healthcare professional restrictions;
prescribing or supervision requirements;
the financial viability of small independent clinics;
whether the proposed regulatory framework disproportionately affected practitioners from a beauty background.
6. Assessment of representative balance
Please provide any recorded assessment of whether the stakeholder group advising the Scottish Government provided balanced representation between:
healthcare professionals;
organisations aligned with healthcare-professional-led regulation;
beauty industry organisations;
independent aesthetic practitioners who were not healthcare professionals.
Where no such assessment is held, please confirm that under section 17 of FOISA.
7. Meetings and declarations
Please provide the attendance records, declarations of interest and relevant meeting records for meetings concerning non-surgical cosmetic procedures regulation attended by Lesley Blair MBE or BABTAC.
Response
Question 1
Information relevant to your request is already available from previous FOI requests and other published material published as follows:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600511018/ concerns the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group, it in turn links to published minutes and other material relevant to that group available here : Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group - gov.scot . As a member of that group, you may consider that interventions made by Ms Blair as part of these meetings may be in scope of your request. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600517032/ which concerns other correspondence between Scottish Government and BABTAC which again you may consider to be in scope of your request
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. No additional recorded information was identified following searches undertaken for the purpose of responding to this request. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request, and that insofar as material described by your request is not contained in this published material it is also not held. To understand why some material is not held it may help you to note that the Scottish Government is unlikely to carry out an individual assessment or evaluation of all recommendations, advice or suggestions made to it, nor for policy decisions to be made on the basis of a single intervention, as such it should not be surprising that no material has been identified which shows “whether it was accepted, rejected or amended; the reason for that decision; whether it affected practitioner eligibility, premises requirements, supervision, prescribing, training, registration or the ability of practitioners from a beauty background to continue providing treatments.”
Question 2
No recorded information was identified following searches undertaken for the purpose of responding to this part of the request. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request.
No recorded assessment, due diligence exercise, stakeholder mapping, membership information, briefing, correspondence or internal discussion of the type described in your request was identified.
Question 3
This question appears to require an assessment of BABTAC/Lesley Blair’s position, alongside the totality of correspondence or other material attesting to the views of other practitioners who may or may not be represented by BABTAC, and a consequential assessment as to whether particular conclusions could or should have been drawn from that material. FOISA provides access to existing information held by the Scottish Government but does not require additional work to be undertaken.
Under FOISA the Scottish Government is required to provide advice and assistance to requesters, and in that spirit I have identified that material in two previously published FoI requests may be helpful: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600516353/ contains material exchanged with BABTAC and https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600529271/ contains information about engagement with practitioners which may be relevant to your question and allow you to undertake your own assessment.
No additional recorded information was identified following searches undertaken for the purpose of responding to this request. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request.
Question 4
The information you have requested is already available from previous FOI requests published at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600516357/ and https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600517029/ . Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. Insofar as not all the information described in your request is contained within these published responses, please consider this notice under Section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold this information.
Question 5
Some of the information you have requested is already available from previous FOI requests published at https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600516353/ , https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600529271/ and https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600515519/ . Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.
No additional recorded information was identified following searches undertaken for the purpose of responding to this request. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request.
Question 6
The Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the balanced representation, on the stakeholder group, between healthcare professionals, organisations aligned with healthcareprofessional- led regulation, beauty industry organisations and independent aesthetic practitioners who were not healthcare professionals.
This is, therefore, a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.
Question 7
We identified one document falling within scope of this part of your request and have attached it separately:
Declarations of Interests – Lesley Blair – 02 April 2024
Information relating to attendance at meetings and records of meetings concerning non-surgical cosmetic procedures regulation is already publicly available through a previous FOI release: Meetings details of the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group (SCIEG) from its formation: FOI release -gov.scot.
Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we are not required to provide information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access and are unable to obtain this information from the Scottish Government website, please contact me again and I will arrange for a copy to be provided.
In the interests of transparency and assistance, I have included links to other FOI releases which may be of interest in the context of your request:
https://https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600527985/ www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600516353/
These publications are not being relied upon for the purposes of our application of section 25(1) of FOISA but are relevant to the subject matter of your request and may provide additional context and information.
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Detected exemption language
Where no such assessment is held, please confirm that under section 17 of FOISA. https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202600517032/ which concerns other correspondence between Scottish Government and BABTAC which again you may consider to be in scope of your request Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request, and that insofar as material described by your request is not contained in this published material it is also not held. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request. This is therefore a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold any further recorded information falling within the scope of this part of your request.