The Faculty of Homeopathy regrets that Lord Taverne, chairman of Sense about Science, should seek an annulment debate (House of Lords, Thursday 26th October) on the new regulations for the labelling of homeopathic products, which came into effect on 1 September. The Faculty, the professional body for doctors and other statutory health professionals who practise homeopathy, states that the legislation is in the public interest and that Lord Taverne’s attack on homeopathy is unwarranted.

The new regulations cover the sale of a limited range of over-the-counter medicines for minor health problems. They bring the UK regulations for homeopathy into line with other European countries and with the regulations for herbal medicines, introduced last year. The public will benefit by being able to read simple indications on the packaging for remedies for minor acute, self-limiting ailments such as nausea, headache, the common cold, skin conditions, digestive complaints etc, based on bibliographic evidence accumulated over 200 years. Other preparations such as cough mixtures and expectorants are available over the counter without clinical trial evidence but Lord Taverne has chosen not to challenge these.

Doctors and other members of the Faculty of Homeopathy reject the campaign being led by Sense about Science to support Lord Taverne’s call for an annulment debate.

John Saxton, President of the Faculty says:

“Doctors who practise homeopathy have all qualified in medicine before studying homeopathy. This means that they can treat their patients with either homeopathic or conventional medicine – whichever is in the patient’s best interest.

“To say that homeopathic medicines are no better than placebo is nonsense. Sense about Science quotes a study published in The Lancet in August 2005, which based its conclusion on only eight trials out of a possible 110. Had a different selection of trials been included in the final eight, the conclusion would have been very different.

“Members of the Faculty of Homeopathy use the best of both homeopathic and conventional medicine to treat their patients. These criticisms are coming from a group of doctors and scientists who have no clinical experience of homeopathy and reject it because it does not fit with their reductionist view of health and healing. Patients are the ones who lose out in such an approach.”

Click here to read the Faculty of Homeopathy and British Homeopathic Association's statement in response to the claims made by Sense About Science.