§ Jackie BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to regulate the practice of aromatherapy. [63043]
§ Ms JowellThe Department does not directly regulate any professional practice. Our policy is to encourage responsible, accountable self-regulation. Our main concern is to help health care professions who have statutory basis for their self-regulation to modernise and strengthen it. Other professions may want to put their self-regulation onto a statutory basis. This is a laudable ambition, but there is much to be done and we must give priority to the professions which provide the majority of services to National Health Service patients.
§ Jackie BallardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of aromatherapists who are currently practising in the UK. [63086]
§ Ms JowellThe Department does not routinely collect statistics on the number of complementary therapy practitioners in the United Kingdom. A survey 359W carried out for the Department by the University of Exeter in 1997 estimated that there were approximately 5,900 aromatherapists practising in the UK at that time.