Implementation of the Non-Surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2024: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please provide the name of the Scottish Government directorate, division, team or policy unit currently responsible for developing and implementing the secondary legislation associated with the Act.

2. Please provide any implementation timetable, project plan, roadmap, programme plan, milestone schedule or equivalent document showing anticipated dates for:

• stakeholder engagement;
• consultation activities;
• publication of draft regulations;
• laying of secondary legislation before the Scottish Parliament;
• commencement or implementation of the Act.

3. Please provide a list of meetings held since 1 January 2025 between Scottish Government officials and:

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland;
• professional regulatory bodies;
• industry representative organisations;
• aesthetic practitioner representative organisations;
• beauty sector representative organisations;

4. where implementation of the Act or associated secondary legislation was discussed.
For each meeting, please provide:

• the date;
• the organisations represented;
• the meeting title or agenda subject.

5. Please provide copies of any completed impact assessments relating to implementation of the Act, including business, regulatory, consumer, equality or island community impact assessments.

6. Please confirm whether any final decisions have been made regarding:

• practitioner qualification requirements;
• transitional arrangements for existing practitioners;
• treatment classifications;
• licensing requirements.

7. If final decisions have been made, please provide copies of the final decision documents.

8. Please provide any published or finalised stakeholder engagement plans relating to the development of secondary legislation under the Act.

Response

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

Answer to Question 1

Development and implementation of the secondary legislation associated with Part 1 of the Non-Surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026 is the responsibility of the Healthcare Quality and Improvement Division, within the Directorate for the Chief Operating Officer, NHS Scotland.

Answer to Question 2

Our searches for this question have identified a draft planning document This does not constitute a finalised plan and does not include business or other decisions.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance an exemption under section 29(1)(a) (policy formulation) of FOISA applies to this document. This exemption is subject to the public interest test.

The information in the document speculates to potential policy approaches. I consider this to relate to the formulation of the policy that is relevant to, but not inherently a part of, the implementation of the Act.

As this exemption is subject to the public interest test, I have considered the arguments in favour of release or of retaining the exemption. I acknowledge that there is a public interest in providing information about approaches to implementation of the Act, and this will extend to the consideration of areas where policy is not yet set. On the other hand, I consider that the public interest in favour of maintaining the exemption is stronger. This is because it is important that policy officials can consider potential future approaches and account for these in planning, without being inhibited about the concern that such thinking may enter the public domain. The Scottish Government will publish proposed approaches in the fullness of time.

Answer to Question 3/4

Given the wording in your enquiry, rather than the numbering, I have read these two questions as one, A search was conducted to identify the relevant information. You asked for a list of meetings with specific stakeholders where the implementation of the Act or associated secondary legislation was discussed.

As the final form of the Act was not known until the 18th of March, when the Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament, I have searched for meetings between 18 March to 8 June. Officials have met with various relevant stakeholders before this date; however the Bill would have not been in its final form and therefore any discussions about implementation would not have been substantive. These discussions would also have been hypothetical, for the same reason.
For this period, no meetings for the period 18 March to 9 June were found for:

• professional regulatory bodies;
• industry representative organisations;
• aesthetic practitioner representative organisations;
• beauty sector representative organisations.

A number of relevant meetings were identified between the Scottish Government and Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Officials engage with HIS on a number of issues related to independent healthcare regulation, and as such some of these meetings may only have discussed the Act in relatively passing terms, or as part of a wider consideration of future priorities and challenges, nonetheless we consider it reasonable to conclude that these meetings are relevant to your request, falling as they do after shortly the point at which the final shape of the Act was known.

Meetings in scope are shown in the table below:

Date	Meeting Title	Organisation
21 April	Independent Healthcare SG & HIS – MS Teams meeting	Healthcare Improvement Scotland
30 March	Independent healthcare SG & HIS workshop – In person meeting at St Andrews House	Healthcare Improvement Scotland
24 March	Stage 3 quick catch up	Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Answer to Question 5

No Impact Assessments further to those already published have been completed. These can be found at:

• business and regulatory impact assessment
• equality and Fairer Scotland Duty impact assessment
• child rights and wellbeing impact assessment
• island communities Impact Assessment Consideration

Answer to Questions 6/7

I can confirm that no final decisions have been made in relation to practitioner qualification requirements or transitional arrangements for existing practitioners, and consequently no final decision documents are available. Therefore this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

With regard to treatment classifications, this information is exempt under s.25(1) of FOISA as it is available in Schedule 1 of the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026 and Schedule 1 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Non-surgical Procedures) Order 2026.

Licensing requirements are also set out in Section 25 of the Order at the link above. I can confirm that no further decisions have been made in respect of any changes to treatment classifications, classifications relating to training requirements or in respect of the need for any changes to or additional licensing requirements.

Answer to Question 8

I confirm that no stakeholder engagement plans have been published or finalised, and therefore I give formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government does intend to engage with stakeholders regarding secondary legislation, and in some cases is required to undertake consultation by virtue of Section 23 of the Non-surgical Procedures and Functions of Medical Reviewers (Scotland) Act 2026.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.