Personal Appearance Services Licence
Personal Appearance Services (PAS) include hairdressing, beauty therapy or skin penetration procedures as provided as part of a business transaction. The purpose of the Public Health (Infection Control for Personal Appearance Services) Act 2003 is to minimise the risk of infection that may result from the provision of personal appearance services.
Who requires a Licence?
A business that conducts the following activities are classified as a higher risk PAS and require a licence from Council before conducting these services:
- Body piercing (other than closed ear or nose piercing)
- Implanting natural or synthetic substances into a person's skin, for example hair or beads.
- Scarring or cutting a person's skin using a sharp instrument to make a permanent mark, pattern or design
- Tattooing (including cosmetic tattooing or semi-permanent makeup)
- Tattoo removal by skin penetration (does not include laser removal)
- Any other skin penetration prescribed under a regulation.
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New Applications
If you are wish to operate a higher risk personal appearance service in the Livingstone Shire Council area, you are required to obtain a licence from Council by completing an application. The following information will assist you in ensuring your application is complete and that you have considered everything that is required with submitting an application.
A higher risk personal appearance services premises must be constructed in accordance with the Queensland Development Code Part 5.2 - Higher Risk Personal Appearances Services. It is recommended that you contact Council's Development Assessment Unit and Building Services as these departments may require separate approval.
The applicant for the Higher Risk Personal Appearance Services Licence must be a legal entity that is a person or a company. A business name or trading name is not a legal entity and cannot be the licence holder.
The application must be completed in full with supporting documentation as outlined in the application form including a copy of the certificate of attainment for competency standard HLTIN402C - Maintain Infection Control Standards in Office Practice Settings for each proposed operator. The application must be lodged with the relevant fee.
Council will process your application within 40 days. You will be contacted should additional information be required to process the application; this will extend the processing timeframes. You will be notified when a decision has been made regarding your application.
When approved, you can then carry out any proposed works (eg. construction or fit out) in accordance with the approved application.
When you are close to completing the construction of the premises, contact Council's Environment and Public Health Unit to arrange a final inspection. You can not undertake higher risk personal appearance services until the premises have had a final inspection and approval has been obtained.
Council will inspect the premises on a regular basis to ensure compliance with the approved application.
Buying/Taking Over an Existing Licence
If you are taking over a business from an existing operator, you will need to determine whether the business holds a current licence and the current status of the premises. It is a requirement that the existing operator notify the buyer of the need to hold a licence certificate.
In the event that the licence is to be transferred or the business is sold, a transfer form is to be completed and submitted to Council with the relevant fee. In addition to the standard details on the transfer form, the details and signatures of the new operator and the existing operator will be required.
It is also recommended that you conduct a business search to determine if there are any outstanding requisitions or outstanding fees owed by the business. There are three types of searches as follows:
- Activity Facility Records Search - Current status of licence/registration records only (does not include an inspection report).
- Single Activity/Facility Search and Inspection - Current status of licence/registration records and current inspection report where applicable. Applications must be accompanied by the relevant fee and consent of the licence/registration holder.
- Multiple Activity/ Facility Search and Inspection - Current status of licence/registration records and current inspection report where applicable for multiple activities at the one premise (eg. an ERA and DGSM at the one premise). Applications must be accompanied by the relevant fee and consent of the licence/registration holder.
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The Public Health (Infection Control for Personal Appearance Services) Act 2003 requires a person who personally provides a higher risk personal appearance service to hold an infection control qualification.
The required qualification is competency standard HLTINF005 - Maintain Infection Prevention for Skin Penetration Treatments, which is endorsed by the Australian National Training Authority. You may be able to achieve the competency standard without doing the training course by producing documentary evidence of your competency and being assessed by a training organisation that is registered to deliver and assess the standard.
The competency mentioned above is taken to include the competency by its former titles:
- ‘HLTIN2A — Maintain Infection Control Standards in Office Practice Settings’; and
- ‘HLTIN402B — Maintain Infection Control Standards in Office Practice Settings’; and
- ‘HLTIN402C — Maintain Infection Control Standards in Office Practice Settings’
A copy of the certificate of attainment for competency standard HLTINF005 - Maintain Infection Prevention for Skin Penetration Treatments for each proposed operator must be submitted with your application.
For more information on nationally recognised training and registered training organisations visit www.training.gov.au.
For more information click on related links and documents or contact Council's Customer Service Centre on 4913 5000 or 1300 790 919.