On Regulation

Herbalists must be statutorily regulated in order to qualify as authorised health professionals under EU legislation so that they can continue to provide their patients with herbal medicines from suppliers and manufacturers.

It was announced recently that herbal practitioners are to be regulated by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. But as currently constituted, the CNHC is incapable of delivering this since only statutory councils have such powers.

Michael McIntyre, Chair of the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, comments:
‘ Herbalists should be regulated like other statutory regulated healthcare practitioners or the public will lose access to properly regulated herbalists and a wide range of herbal medicines. The Government must give detailed assurances that the legal and structural basis of statutory regulation is fit for purpose or it will betray the millions of people who regularly consult herbal practitioners. So far the Government has singularly failed to provide these guarantees.’