Cancer research UK has invited the Westminster Government to follow Scotland’s example and ban under-18s from using sun beds.

Scotland will ban children from Tuesday from using sun-beds and is to ensure adults are fully informed of the risk.

UK’s Cancer Research head of policy, Sarah Woolnough, said Westminster should do the same. She said, ‘the time has come for the government to take the dangers of sunbed use seriously and pass legislation.'

The British Medical Journal published that earlier this month major findings from a Cancer Research UK survey which found half of the 15-17 year old girls in Liverpool and Sunderland used a sun-bed.

About 40% of the girls used a sun-bed at least one time in a week. Skin cancer rates going up faster than any other kind of cancer and have become four times in the last three decades.

Ms Woolnough said that sun-beds were now put under the highest risk category for cancer.

She said, ‘The intensity of UV rays in some sunbeds can be more than 10 times stronger than the midday sun.’