TRADITIONAL HERBAL MEDICINAL PRODUCTS DIRECTIVE

That this House welcomes the efforts of successive Ministers to find a secure future home in European law for safe herbal remedies currently available on the United Kingdom market as medicines exempt from licensing under the provisions of Section 12(2) of the Medicines Act 1968; notes with interest the adoption by the European Commission of a proposal for a Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products which could provide a partial solution to the problem; regrets however that the provisions of this proposed Directive are too restrictive in requiring a product to be able to demonstrate 30 years on the market as a traditional medicinal product in order to qualify for acceptance and to comply with technical criteria more appropriate to licensed pharmaceutical medicines than registered herbal remedies; further notes that many categories of safe products currently available on the UK market, including simple mixtures of herbs with vitamins and minerals, would be left outside the scope of the proposed Directive and hence be left outside the regulatory regime; and invites the Minister both to work for improvements to the directive and urgently to bring forward proposals for a new national regime to make adequate and comprehensive provision for those natural health products which would otherwise be left outside the scope of the regulatory structure.