Best practice on preventing surgical site infections, including skin preparation before surgery, is set out in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guideline NG125, Surgical site infections: prevention and treatment. NICE guidelines describe evidence‑based best practice, and National Health Service organisations are expected to take them fully into account when designing and delivering services that meet the needs of their local populations.

Professional organisations, including the Association for Perioperative Practice and the Centre for Perioperative Care, provide practical guidance for clinical teams. Each NHS trust is then responsible for its own local policy, setting out clearly which products to use, how they should be applied, and how practice is monitored, based on this national guidance.

Quality perioperative care not only improves patient outcomes, but boosts hospitals’ productivity by reducing cancellations, shortening patients’ length of hospital stay, and minimising postoperative complications.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence provides the main evidence-based recommendations on perioperative skin preparation, and NHS England supports this by issuing safety alerts and setting expectations for how risks should be managed in practice.

The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme also helps identify variation between trusts, such as differences in product choice or how consistently policies are followed, and encourages more standard approaches. The GIRFT programme has produced perioperative national guidance after observing national variation in decolonisation practice prior to elective surgery. Professional organisations like the Association for Perioperative Practice and the Royal College of Surgeons also provide practical guidance for clinical teams.

Based on this national guidance, each National Health Service trust is responsible for its own local policy, setting out clearly which products to use, how they should be applied, and how practice is monitored.

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 23 October 2025 to Question 81731.

I refer the hon. Member for Newbury to the answer of 23 October 2025 to Question 81731.

The Home Office is committed to supporting the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods to animal testing, as outlined in the published strategy: Replacing animals in science’, published on 11 November 2025.

The last licence authorising the use of the rabbit pyrogen test was granted in 2017. The most recent reported use of the test was in 2018. No pyrogen testing has been reported since this date.

The latest published statistics show that no procedures were reported under the category of ‘skin irritation/corrosion’ tests.

In 2024, three procedures were reported under the category of ‘eye irritation/corrosion’ tests.

The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the use of animals in scientific procedures. The statistics can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-statistics

The Department has made no assessment on the potential merits of widening the criteria for mole removal on the National Health Service. People are advised to visit their general practitioner (GP) with new or existing moles that have changed in shape or colour. If the GP suspects a mole is cancerous, a two week suspected cancer referral will be made. Depending on the outcome, the mole may be surgically removed. The NHS does not routinely provide mole removal for cosmetic reasons.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), as the independent body with responsibility for developing evidence-based guidance for the health and care system, has not made an assessment.

With reference to the report entitled Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2019, published in July 2020, the baseline numbers of scientific procedures are influenced by a range of factors – including the programmes of work and available funding. This includes numbers related to: experiments for protection of the natural environment; an increase in the use of beagles born in the rest of the world in experiments; and, a decrease in experiments on animals relating to skin sensitisation.

Dogs are a specially protected species under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The Home Office will only grant a project licence for a programme of work using dogs where the purpose of the programme of work specified in the licence can only be achieved by their use, or where it is not practicable to use other suitable animals.

The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal: animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible; the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought; and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.

We have no specific plans to analyse the potential effect of videos demonstrating skin bleaching.

However, as part of the work on the Digital Charter, we are considering a range of options to counter internet harms. This includes an Internet Safety Strategy, published on 11 October, which considers the responsibilities of companies to their users, the use of technical solutions to prevent online harms and government's role in supporting users.

We have made no assessment of the potential effect of videos demonstrating skin bleaching on young people, and currently have no plans to do so.

We have made no such assessment.

The Government is committed to ensuring that individuals make informed and safe choices about cosmetic procedures. Since publication of Sir Bruce Keogh’s Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions, in 2013, we have implemented a number of important measures to that end.

These measures include continuation of an extensive programme around body image to help young adults to become more resilient to the pressures that they face. A copy of the 2015 progress report can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/body-confidence-progress-report-2015

The General Medical Council has also published guidance which makes clear the ethical obligations doctors have towards patients and the standards of care they need to provide. The guidance is clear that doctors must market their services responsibly and give patients all the time and information they need so that they can make a voluntary and informed decision about whether to go ahead. A copy of the guidance can be found at the following link:

http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/news_consultation/27171.asp

This information is not held centrally.

The table below provides a count of the number of finished admission episodes (FAEs) where a primary diagnosis of Staphylococcal scalded skin syndrome has been recorded for patients aged 0 to 17 years on admission, for each year from 2009-10 to 2013-14.

An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider.

This does not represent the number of patients as an individual may be admitted on more than one occasion.

Information concerning the number of people diagnosed with Epidermolysis Bullose (EB) on an annual basis is not collected.

NHS England commissions services for patients with EB as part of its remit to deliver specialised services. The service specification it has published for EB sets out that the condition is estimated to affect one in 17,000 live births and that there are around 5,000 people living with EB in the United Kingdom.

Data on hospital admissions are collected by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. A diagnosis classification system (ICD-10) is used within the data and depending on how specific a request is, it is not always possible to identify every condition using these codes. Information relating to skin damage is not held centrally.