HERBAL REMEDIES

That this House notes that herbal remedies have for centuries made a valuable contribution to healthcare; acknowledges that successive Ministers have hoped that the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive would provide a safe future legal home for such products as older legislative provisions were withdrawn; is alarmed that only 35 applications for registration under the Directive have been received by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and only 14 registrations granted; fears that many smaller specialist manufacturers are deterred by the prohibitive costs and pharmaceutical testing regimes introduced by the legislation; warns that this risks the loss of thousands of safe and popular herbal remedies when the transitional period expires in 2011; and invites Ministers urgently to intervene to reduce the burdens of regulatory compliance and to persuade the European Union to review the legislation to prevent further damage to the herbal products sector.