Just a few months after pioneering partial face transplants in France and China, a London hospital’s ethics committee will discuss whether to allow a surgeon to conduct the world’s first full face transplant.

But Peter Butler, consultant plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, may have to wait months before performing the first operation even if he gets the green light.

Neil Huband, a spokesman for the transplant team, said the ethics committee had not reached its final decision yesterday and the team was expecting to be asked for more information about their plans.

No recipients have yet been selected but Butler has been contacted by 29 disfigured volunteers willing to undergo the procedure, major British newspapers reported. Last year, surgeons in France carried out the world’s first partial face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire, 38, had her nose, lips and chin replaced after she was savaged by a dog. In April, a hospital in China conducted what is believed to be the second partial face transplant on Li Guoxing, 30.