Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to review the prohibition on the (a) import and (b) sale of Kava products.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for the regulation of medicines, medical devices, and blood components for transfusion in the United Kingdom, and this includes the regulation of herbal medicinal products.

The UK Statutory Instrument 2002 No. 3170 The Medicines for Human use (Kava-kava) (Prohibition) Order 2002 prohibits the sale, supply, and importation of Kava-kava for use in unlicensed medicines in the UK.

The Prohibition Order was reviewed after it had been in force for two years by an Expert Working Group of the Committee on Safety of Medicines, which announced in February 2006 that the prohibition was justified and proportionate and should remain in place. No further review of the prohibition order has been made.

The 2002 Prohibition Order does not exclude applicants applying for a traditional herbal registration or a marketing authorisation under Regulation 125 or Regulation 49, respectively, of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, should someone wish to market a Kava-kava medicinal product in the UK.