Professional Standards Authority

Lord Taverne Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Taverne]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to appoint a scientist to the Professional Standards Authority.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have no plans to change the membership of the council of the Professional Standards Authority. The authority is required under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to set standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations, and accredits those which meet these standards. It is not required to make a judgment on the beliefs and practices of individuals registered with the organisations that it accredits.

[Lord Taverne (LD)]

My Lords, the Professional Standards Authority has recently approved the registration of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council—which is known in scientific circles, quite justifiably, as Ofquack. It means, in effect, that craniosacral therapists, reflexologists and homeopaths can now claim to be covered by the same professional standards as doctors and nurses. In the past, the Department of Health has sometimes suggested that it will not take sides between evidence-based medicine, which is based on science, and complementary medicine, which is based on pseudo-science. Does the Minister not agree that the Department of Health should not be neutral between sense and nonsense?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, it is important to understand that the accreditation scheme that we are talking about does not endorse any particular therapy as effective, and that it makes clear that accreditation does not imply that it has. The principle remains that it is for individuals, in consultation with health practitioners, to decide which therapy is right for them. The scheme is not a form of regulation, nor is the PSA a regulator. It sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations, and accredits those that meet the standards.