The UK Health Secretary has announced proposals to improve safeguards for people using herbal medicines, including traditional Chinese medicine, with acupuncture highly likely to follow shortly. Practitioners in the United Kingdom who supply unlicensed herbal products, including Chinese medicines, will have to register with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. The announcement is the result of a consultation about herbal medicine earlier this year and long campaigning from complementary practitioners themselves. For more news on this see the announcement by the Department of Health and the cautious response by the European Herbal and Traditional Medicines Practitioners Association which points out that the CNHC is not a statutory council and so cannot provide statutory regulation.