Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ11: Development of beauty industry

Following is a question by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (March 26):

Question:

Some representatives of the beauty industry have pointed out that they have all along endeavoured to promote the development of professionalism in the industry, including encouraging beauty practitioners to obtain internationally recognised professional qualifications through study and training, promoting and implementing a qualifications framework within the industry, as well as promoting the introduction of a professional licensing examination system. In addition, they have also expressed concern about the possibility that certain devices used for beauty purposes might be included in the authorities' plan of regulating medical devices through legislation. Regarding the issues relating to the development and regulation of the beauty industry, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it will implement a standardised framework for recognising qualifications for the beauty industry, so as to boost consumers' confidence in beauty services; if it will, of the details and the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that;

(2) whether it has completed the business impact assessment in relation to the regulation of medical devices; if it has, of the details; if not, the expected completion time of the assessment and the publication of the assessment report; of the latest development of introducing legislation to regulate medical devices; whether the authorities will put beauty devices and medical devices under the same regulatory framework; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, and whether beauty devices will be subject to regulation;

(3) whether the authorities will allocate resources to the beauty industry in order to provide proper training to practitioners performing beauty procedures, so as to ensure that they have adequate skills and experience to perform those procedures and operate high-risk devices; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(4) whether it has compiled statistics on the person-times receiving beauty services in the past five years, as well as the annual economic contributions (in terms of value added) of the beauty industry and the percentage share of the industry in Hong Kong's gross domestic product of the same years?

Reply:

President,

The reply to the question raised by Professor Hon Joseph Lee Kok-long is as follows:

(1) According to the Education Bureau (EDB), the Beauty Industry Training Advisory Committee (Beauty ITAC) has been set up under the Qualifications Framework (QF) to assist the industry in implementing the QF and promote lifelong learning of its practitioners. The Beauty ITAC developed the first version of Specification of Competency Standards (SCS) in November 2010, which sets out the competency requirements and outcome standards of the industry at various QF levels and provides a foundation for the development of education and training programmes (including in-house training programmes) that meet the practical needs of the industry. The Beauty ITAC is contemplating the implementation of a Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) mechanism based on the SCS, the remit and coverage of which is subject to discussions and industry-wide consensus. The EDB and the QF Secretariat will continue to assist the beauty industry in sustaining its development riding on the QF platform.

(2) and (3) The Administration is considering introducing legislation to regulate medical devices so as to ensure that medical devices manufactured, sold or used in Hong Kong comply with the relevant requirements in terms of safety, performance and quality. In this connection, we propose to set up a medical device registration system. Devices used in beauty parlours that are classified as medical devices will be subject to regulation under the proposed legislation.

To prepare for the regulatory regime, the Government set up a voluntary Medical Device Administrative Control System in 2004. Subsequently, advice of the Legislative Council (LegCo) Panel on Health Services (HS Panel) on the proposed regulatory framework for medical devices was sought in November 2010. In making the regulatory proposal, factors such as findings of the regulatory impact assessment, views of stakeholders and the general public collected through consultations, discussions held by the LegCo in the past and experience gained from the operation of the Medical Device Administrative Control System had been taken into account. In response to the recommendations of the Business Facilitation Advisory Committee, the Department of Health has commissioned a consultant company to conduct a business impact assessment of the regulatory proposal.

Meanwhile, in response to a serious medical incident that took place during the performance of a cosmetic procedure provided by a beauty parlour in 2012, the Working Group on Differentiation between Medical Procedures and Beauty Services (Working Group) under the Steering Committee on Review of the Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities established by the Administration recommended that cosmetic procedures involving the use of medical devices, particularly those using energy-emitting devices, should be deliberated within the regulatory framework for medical devices. In this connection, the Administration plans to brief the LegCo HS Panel on how to implement the recommendations of the Working Group, when it reports the results of the business impact assessment.

(4) The Government has not compiled statistics on the person-times receiving beauty services, the economic contributions of the beauty industry and the percentage share of the industry in Hong Kong's gross domestic product.

Ends/Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:36

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