Tony Baldry MP
Member of Parliament for Banbury
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
02 December 2003
Thank you for getting in touch with me about the EU Food Supplements Directive. I fully appreciate your concerns. I am currently supporting an Early Day Motion, which makes similar points to the ones which you have written to me on, as I have seen and heard of many of the benefits which people in North Oxfordshire have experienced with Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products. I have also recently been in touch with your local MEP, James Elles, on this issue
Unfortunately the government has taken an utterly implausible view against herbal and nutritional medicines. In response to an oral parliamentary question the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health responded:
"... many issues have yet to be decided and I think that we all agree that the only reason to ban any supplements is effectively that they are unsafe. (hon. Members: "No"). Well that is the government's ground for taking action."
It is quite clear that government Ministers have managed to convince themselves that the vast majority of nutritional supplements are unsafe! I think this completely lacks any proportionality and any rationality. I am sure you will be aware that one of the major concerns over the EC's THMPD is that the European Union's proposals would allow a product licence to be given to medicines without proof being provided that they are safe!
Unfortunately the government has continued to push this directive through. I suspect the THMPD could have been a major step forward, but it has been so substantially changed from the first draft that it will no longer help. Particularly at risk are blends of herbs with vitamins and minerals, which the MCA argues should be classed as medicines requiring a full licence if the herbal ingredient is at therapeutic levels. Yet for some other products I understand from the National Association of Health Stores that the cost will be �2,000 for each product, therefore �200,000 for manufacturers' preferred distribution of 100 products. Similarly they estimate registration fees for some products would be a staggering �1.5 million per 100 products.
Tony Baldry