§ Mr. BaronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the estimated cost of registration with the new Complementary and Alternative Medicine Council will be. [175937]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 27 May 2004]: On 2 March the Department published proposals for the statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture practitioners. The consultation period closed on 7 June. I am aware that the cost of statutory regulation is of interest to practitioners and I will carefully consider the comments about costs made in response to the consultation exercise. At this stage we are unable to provide a more accurate estimate of cost than that set out in paragraph 25 of the Department's consultation document, "Regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture".