That this House recognises that around eight million UK citizens rely
on, use regularly or have used herbal medicines in the past; affirms
that loss of the so-called herbalist's exemption, now part of the 2012
Human Medicines Regulations, would deprive herbalists of their
prescribing rights in the absence of legislation enacting a state
register of qualified herbalists; notes that two public consultations
and two parliamentary committees have found overwhelming support for
statutory regulation of UK herbal medicine practitioners; recalls the
promise made on 16 February 2011 by the then Secretary of State for
Health, the right hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire, to set up such a
register, a decision described by him at the time as one that 'resolves
a long-standing issue, to the benefit of both practitioners and the
public who use herbal medicines'; foresees that, in the absence of easy
access by the public to herbal medicine practitioners with the ability
to prescribe individualised remedies, many people will resort instead to
entirely unregulated sources for their herbal medicines, such as the
internet; believes that patients obtaining herbal medicines from
unregulated sources will put themselves at unnecessary risk; questions
the wisdom of restricting UK citizens' healthcare choices at a time both
of unprecedented pressure on the National Health Service and of
national austerity; and therefore calls on the Government to explain the
greater than two-year delay in making available for consultation by the
four UK Health departments draft legislation for a framework of
statutory regulation for herbal medicine practitioners, and give the
House an expected timeframe for the issue of the draft legislation.
Session: 2013-14
Date tabled: 06.06.2013
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/205
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