The Act
Overview
Part 1: Non-surgical Procedures
Section 14: UK internal market: power to establish individual assessment process
78.This section contains a regulation-making power which allows the Scottish Ministers to establish one or more individual assessment processes to which section 26 of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (“
79.Section 26 of the 2020 Act allows for an exception to the automatic recognition principle in section 24(2) of that Act by means of an individual assessment process. A section 26 process enables a qualified UK resident to have their qualifications, experience, knowledge or skills assessed to ensure they meet any standards of qualification or experience which may be set out by one part of the UK.
80.Under an individual assessment process established under section 14 of the Act, individuals may apply for approval to provide (or supervise the provision of) non-surgical procedures or licensed procedures i.e. the lower risk non-surgical procedures which are specified in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Non-surgical Procedures) Order 2026 (S.S.I. 2026/87) which introduces a local authority licensing scheme.
81.When established, this process will give individuals the opportunity to apply to have their level of training or qualifications recognised as equivalent to any standard established in Scotland. This would allow them to provide non-surgical procedures (or licensed procedures) to which that standard relates.
82.Regulations made under this section will be able to designate one or more regulatory bodies to set up, administer and run an individual assessment process, make provision in relation to fees, and establish the application process for an individual under the process. The regulations will also allow for the creation of an offence where an individual provides false or misleading information as part of an application under the process. The maximum penalty that can be provided for the offence will be a fine, on summary conviction, up to level 5 on the standard scale. This scale is set out in section 225 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and, as at May 2026, level 5 on the scale is set at £5,000.
83.Section 22(5) provides for the parliamentary procedure for this regulation-making power. The first time the power is used it will be to implement policy decisions e.g. around the choice of regulator, creation of offences and the parameters of the process, and is subject to the affirmative procedure together with a consultation requirement (see section below in relation to section 23). Thereafter, it is anticipated that the changes made to the process by regulations will be more minor and technical in nature. Subsequent regulations made using this power will be subject to the negative procedure.
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