An entry in the Record

How to check a hair transplant clinic on the register

The check takes a minute, costs nothing, and settles a question nothing else can settle from outside a consulting room. Here is what it proves, what it does not, and how the four nations differ.

Filed 20 Sept 2026Documents re-read 24 Sept 2026

Why this check exists at all

Because the law made hair transplant surgery a thing you must be registered to do. Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 defines the regulated activity "surgical procedures" as procedures carried on by a health care professional for, among other purposes, "cosmetic purposes, where the procedure involves the use of instruments or equipment which are inserted into the body".

Everything below follows from that sentence. A clinic performing hair transplants in England is carrying on a regulated activity, so it has to appear on the Care Quality Commission's register. If it does not appear, the CQC's own guidance for the public is unambiguous: "If the hospital or clinic is not registered with us they may be practising illegally." That page was last updated on 28 April 2025.

Figure · the four registers

One question, four keepers

CQC is the Care Quality Commission (England), HIS Healthcare Improvement Scotland, HIW Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, RQIA the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (Northern Ireland). Each keeps a public register you can search without asking anyone.

Which regulator, by nation

The registers are national, and a clinic is on the one for the country it operates in.

England — the Care Quality Commission.
Scotland — Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Registration of independent clinics there is a legal requirement, the definition covers clinics where services are provided by a medical practitioner, and HIS can refuse registration, which means a refused clinic cannot lawfully operate. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were added to the definition of an independent clinic on 19 June 2024.
Wales — Healthcare Inspectorate Wales.
Northern Ireland — the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority.

If a clinic has sites in more than one nation, each site sits under its own regulator. A glowing report for a London location tells you about the London location.

Doing it, in about a minute

The CQC's public page gives the two routes plainly: find a provider using the search box on its site, or call us on 03000 616161. The other three regulators publish their registers too.

What to have in front of you before you search: the clinic's legal name, not only its trading name. Cosmetic clinics frequently trade under a brand that differs from the registered company, and a search for the brand can return nothing while the provider is perfectly well registered under something else. Ask the clinic directly for the name it is registered under, and treat reluctance to give it as information in itself.

Then check three things in the entry:

That the provider is registered for the regulated activity — surgical procedures — and not only for something adjacent.
That the location you would attend appears, rather than a different site belonging to the same company.
What the inspection history says, and its date. An entry is a fact about registration; a report is an opinion with a date on it.

What an entry proves, and what it does not

An entry proves that the provider has been through registration for that activity at that location, and that it is inside a system with the power to inspect it and to act. That is a genuine floor, and it is the only comparison anybody can make about a clinic from outside the building.

It does not prove that a particular operation will go well. It does not tell you who will be holding the instruments on the day. It does not price anything, and it makes no comment on whether the quote is fair. And it says nothing at all about the individual doctor — that is a separate register and a separate search, set out in the GMC register and who counts as a surgeon.

Registration is also not a review. The CQC's page tells patients to ask the surgeon directly about their qualifications or expertise in carrying out the procedure — "for example, how often they've performed it, what the risks are and how often complications occur" — which is a question no register answers.

The boundary that trips people up

Not everything sold for hair falls inside that surgical paragraph, and the difference is legal rather than cosmetic. The CQC's page lists what it does not regulate, including muscle-relaxing injections used to alter appearance, dermal fillers, chemical peels and laser treatments. The regulations themselves exclude piercing, tattooing, subcutaneous injections used to alter appearance, and the removal of hair or blemishes by heat from an electric current.

So a clinic can be entirely outside the surgical register and entirely legitimate, if what it does is not surgery. The problem arises when the two sit in one building under one brand and the register entry is waved at a procedure it does not cover. Match the entry to the procedure you are buying, not to the sign over the door.

That boundary is moving. The government's response to its consultation on licensing non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England, published on 7 August 2025 after 11,848 responses, commits to a tiered scheme: the highest-risk procedures to become CQC-regulated activities performed only by specified regulated healthcare professionals, local authority licensing for lower-risk procedures under powers in the Health and Care Act 2022, and age restrictions. What is inside each tier will be set by further consultation, so treat any statement about how a given non-surgical treatment will be regulated as unsettled until it is in force.

If the search comes back empty

Three possibilities, in order of likelihood. The trading name differs from the registered name — ask for the registered one. The location is registered under a parent company — ask which. Or the provider is not registered for that activity, which is the CQC's "may be practising illegally" case and the point at which the conversation should stop rather than continue into a deposit.

There is no version of this where the right move is to take the clinic's word for it. The register is free, public and searchable by you, and a provider that would rather you did not look has answered a different and more important question.

Where this sits in the order of checks

First the clinic's register, because it is free and disqualifying. Then the doctor's register, because a registered building does not imply a registered surgeon. Then the consultation with the person who will operate, then the fortnight the CQC recommends before deciding. The whole sequence, with what each stage settles, is on hair transplants in the UK.

Register questions

Does a hair transplant clinic have to be CQC registered?

In England, yes, if it is carrying out the surgery. Surgery for cosmetic purposes using instruments inserted into the body is the regulated activity "surgical procedures" under Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the 2014 regulations, so a provider performing hair transplants must be registered for it. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the equivalent registers are kept by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and the RQIA.

What if the clinic is not on the register?

The CQC's published position is that a hospital or clinic not registered with it may be practising illegally. That is a reason to stop rather than a detail to clarify later — although it is worth first checking whether the provider is registered under a legal name different from its trading name.

Does a CQC entry mean the clinic is good?

No. It means the provider is registered for that activity at that location and sits inside a system that can inspect and act. Inspection reports carry a judgement and a date; the entry itself carries neither. The CQC still tells patients to ask the surgeon how often they have performed the procedure and how often complications occur.

Is scalp micropigmentation covered by the same register?

Not by the surgical paragraph. The regulations exclude tattooing, and the CQC lists fillers, muscle-relaxing injections, peels and laser treatments among the things it does not regulate. England's licensing scheme for non-surgical procedures, committed to in the government's consultation response of 7 August 2025, is intended to cover that ground, but the detail is still to be consulted on.

How long does checking take?

About a minute, once you have the clinic's registered legal name. The CQC also takes enquiries by telephone on 03000 616161 if a search is not returning what you expect.

The whole question of who may lawfully operate in this country, and what the four registers actually show, is set out on hair transplants in the UK. For what you can buy, be prescribed or be refused here, see hair loss treatment in the UK. Neither page is advice, and neither has been read by a clinician.