§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what incentives his Department provides to increase the numbers of homoeopathic practitioners that are professionally registered. [99921]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 3 March 2003]: The Department provides no direct incentives to individual homeopaths to encourage them to join professional registers. However, national health service organisations take into account whether complementary and alternative medicine practitioners are members of an appropriate voluntary regulatory scheme when deciding whether to commission their services.
The Department is still awaiting reports from the two regulatory working groups that have been established to develop proposals specifically on the statutory regulation of herbalists and acupuncturists. When we have consulted on their recommendations, we will be in a position to consider whether there is a case for the statutory regulation of homeopaths and any other complementary and alternative medicine professions.