Declares that the Petitioners are concerned about proposed changes to the Medicines Act that may restrict access to homeopathic medicine.
Wherefore your Petitioners request that the House of Commons urges the Government to ensure that any changes to the Medicine Act allow greater freedom to homeopathic practitioners to dispense remedies.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.—[Presented by Jim Shannon, Official Report, 17 July 2012; Vol. 548, c. 956.]
[P001112]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Health:
The Medicines Act 1968 and the some 200 statutory instruments which made up the fragmented UK medicines legislation have been consolidated into one set of regulations; the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. These came into force on 14 August 2012. The consolidation exercise did not change the legislative provisions governing the sale and supply of homeopathic medicines.
Development of provisions to allow homeopathic practitioners to dispense remedies would need detailed consideration of the policy and legal implications of any reforms to the existing pharmacy provisions. It would also require a full public consultation.
Such a change would represent a very significant move away from the current position. The proposals could not be taken forward without detailed and sustained assessment and consideration and could not be introduced simply as an amendment to the regulations.