Avilian

With thanks to David Tredinnick:

…..Another issue that we need to address this evening is homeopathy. Section 5.50 of the report says that therapies should be able to seek statutory regulation, and homeopathy is the one therapy in group 1 in the report—the Minister will remember that there are different classifications—that is not statutorily regulated.

I am informed by the Society of Homeopaths, which is the largest organisation representing non-medical homeopaths, that there is a move towards statutory regulation through the Health Professions Council.

Will the Government look favourably on that application?

Homeopathy has had a long tradition in the health service; it was actually used by Aneurin Bevan—all those years ago—who helped to put it in the health service. However, homeopathy has been under attack, despite the new Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.

The hospital and those who support homeopathy have faced difficult times, not least the attacks by the so-called scientific establishment and a letter that purported to come from the NHS—it had the NHS logo on it—in May 2007 which was signed by many retired professors of medicine.

That letter should never have been sent out under the NHS letterhead.

Attacks have also been made on the efficacy of homeopathy. A letter was sent to the World Health Organisation warning against the use of homeopathy, but it ignored the very clear randomised, double-blind trials that proved that it is effective in the particular area of childhood diarrhoea on which it was criticised.

Will the Government therefore be robust in their support for homeopathy and consider what can be done so that it is used more effectively in the health service?….

I have mentioned the problems of negative information, particularly in the context of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and homeopathy generally, and of what is effectively an attack on a statutorily regulated body dealing with chiropractic.

Will the Minister offer to look into the position, and perhaps write to me about both the state of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and the disinformation that has been issued and the chiropractic regulatory council?

Gillian Merron (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Lincoln, Labour) replied:

I think that that intervention demonstrates why it is so important for the Government to take the position of not being for or against specific complementary and alternative medicine, and—as I said at the beginning of my speech—treating it in the same way as mainstream medicine.

I am aware of the other matter that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, but obviously neither I nor the Government can control what people put in blogs or letters.

What we can do, I think, is rise above it, and I believe that that is what we have done by providing the information that we have provided.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for initiating the debate. He has made a great contribution and a strong case for the views that he holds, and I know that the House will be grateful for that.