February 2011
Following over ten years of debates in the House of Lords the Government has decided that medical herbal practitioners, traditional Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncturists should be regulated by the Health Professional Council (HPC). The move comes ahead of EU legislation that calls for the removal of unlicensed herbal medicines from sale in April 2011. Health secretary, Andrew Lansley said that statutory regulation through the HPC would ensure that practitioners would still have access to these products. Lansley proposes that this will be possible by using a derogation from the EU legislation and by setting up a UK scheme to permit and regulate the supply of unlicensed herbal medicines to practitioners.
The legislation which is due to come into effect in 2012 has been met with objections. Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians said: “We are disappointed to hear of government plans to bring in statutory regulation for herbal practitioners in the UK. "The proposed register will imply herbal therapies have the same legitimacy as medicine, nursing and dentistry, despite offering patients no proven benefit.” Pharmacologist Professor David Colquhoun of University College London said that the legislation allowed herbalists to sell products that have not undergone rigorous testing as is the case for drug companies.
Statutory regulation has, however, been welcomed by the National Institute of Medical Herbalists. President Desiree Shelley said “The Government is to be congratulated on making the right decision to bring in statutory regulation for all those prescribing herbal medicines. Ministers have clearly recognised that this legislation is for patients’ benefit.”
