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Following is the question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour, Mr Stephen Ip, in the Legislative Council today (October 20):

Question:

Regarding complaints about the services provided by beauty or slimming centres, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the total number of such complaints received by the authorities concerned in the past two years;

(b) of a breakdown by subject matter of the complaint cases mentioned in (a) above and, among these cases, the number of those in which the services provided had caused injuries to the complainants, as well as the total amount of compensation consequently paid by the centres concerned;

(c) whether complaints involving the misuse of beauty treatment devices have been on the rise over the past two years, and whether it will consider introducing legislation to regulate the use of the beauty treatment devices in question; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and

(d) as there have been people sustaining injuries as a result of beauty treatment, whether it will issue guidelines to the beauty business, or advise or caution consumers in respect of the risks involved in the course of beauty treatment?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) Between January 2002 and September 2004, the Consumer Council received a total of 1,462 complaints about the services of beauty or slimming centres, details of which are set out in (b) below.

(b) Breakdown of the complaints received by the Consumer Council is as follows -

Nature of complaint 2002 2003 2004

(Jan - Sept)

(i) Sales practices 41 77 91

(ii) Complainants unable

to enjoy the number of

service entitled 100 95 61

enjoy the number of

service entitled

(iii) Charges 27 26 17

(iv) Quality of services 222 203 156

(v) Allergy, pain or 8 26 28

appearance of mark on

the skin after being

serviced

(vi) Shop closing down 102 9 17

(vii) Others 42 65 49

Total 542 501 419

Source: Consumer Council

The Consumer Council does not have information on whether these cases involved compensation or the amount involved.

(c) Of the cases in (b)(v) above, those suspected to have involved the misuse of beauty or slimming treatment devices are as follows-

2002 2003 2004

(Jan - Sept)

1 8 2

At present, there is no legislation regulating the use of beauty treatment devices. However, some beauty treatment devices like IPL devices and lasers may be regarded as medical devices. The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau (HWFB) will, by the end of this year, introduce an administrative control system for medical devices, which includes a set of risk-based pre-market registration requirements for the products, the manufacturers and the traders; and a post-market control and adverse incident reporting system. Moreover, depending on the risk level of the medical device in question, the HWFB will restrict the use of such device to medical practitioners, and/or personnel who have undergone recognised training. Certain types of high-powered lasers and IPL devices commonly used in beauty parlours fall within this category. However, this control system will not cover intermediate and low powered lasers which are less dangerous.

The HWFB has drawn up this system earlier this year, after a public consultation exercise and taking into account the views of the Legislative Council Panel on Health Services. The system is the first step in regulating the sale and use of medical devices and statutory control could be introduced in future if necessary.

(d) With the implementation of the system, non-medical professionals, including beauticians, will have to undergo recognised training before they can operate certain medical devices such as IPL equipment. As part of the training, they will be reminded of the need to inform their clients of the potential risks and obtain their consent before performing certain types of beauty treatment. Furthermore, operators of such devices will be required to follow a code of practice on appropriate and safe use of these devices.

The Department of Health is preparing guidelines on infection control for personnel providing skin penetration service. The Department will also conduct publicity campaigns to remind the public to patronise properly trained personnel.

Separately, the Consumer Council, through its CHOICE magazine, reminds consumers from time to time on matters of concern and the potential risks involved in obtaining beauty treatment services.

Ends/Wednesday, October 20, 2004

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