UK votes to adopt EU supplements directive
3 July 2003 - London
The Standing Committee on Health of the House of Commons, in a close vote, approved the proposed UK law that transforms the European Food Supplements directive into British law. 7 members of the 13-member committee accepted the government's proposed Statutory Instrument, which spells out the details of application of th new EU rules on supplements.The vote comes after the House of Lords had rejected the same law in an overwhelming, but non-binding motion.
In an apparent attempt to head off intensive consumer lobbying and to ensure a politically correct outcome of the vote, the Standing Committee's members were shuffled on the morning of the vote with six new members being appointed just hours before the decision approving the government's proposal. There was no debate in the House of Commons.
For those interested in the details of last minute member changes in the Standing Committee and the discussions that preceded the approval of the Statutory Instrument transforming the EU directive into UK law, here is a report by Paul Taylor.
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From a recent story in the UK press:WEST Worcestershire MP Sir Michael Spicer said he fully supported a move to amend European regulation which would ban 300 vitamin supplements from being sold in health stores.
"I have had hundreds of letters from angry constituents about this matter," he said. "Quite rightly they want to limit the role of the nanny state, particularly when the issue is being driven from Brussels. Next in line are to be herbal medicines and other alternative homeopathic remedies."
Sir Michael added: "The sensible approach would be to ban only those remedies which have known harmful effects and have been scientifically assessed as such by the Scientific Committee for Food. This is not what will happen.
"Instead, people will be deprived from August 1 of using products which have been, apparently harmlessly, available for a long time and which they feel will do them good. It is a scandal."
The "Early Day Motion" approved in the House of Lords:
EDM 1442
FOOD SUPPLEMENTS (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 18.06.03
Fox/Liam
That this House notes that, under the provisions of the Food Supplements (England) Regulations, the use in food supplements of the key nutrients silicon, sulphur and boron, in addition to some 300 other sources of minerals and vitamins, will be banned with effect from July 2005; further notes the warnings from officials of the Food Standards Agency to industry representatives on Monday 9th June that the setting of maximum permitted levels of nutrients in food supplements thereafter by the European authorities is likely to lead to very low permissible levels reflecting outdated concepts of nutritional need rather than safety, which will in turn have a serious and adverse impact upon UK industry and consumer choice; calls on the Government to take urgent action to address these serious problems; and declines to approve the Food Supplements (England) Regulations.
Update about the vote count in Committee (8 July 2003):
Apparently the Government are now saying that the vote was actually AYES 8 NOES 6 (as opposed to AYES 7 NOES 6, which was what was read out at the end of the vote by the clerk). Apparently "the clerk read it out wrongly".A rarer than rare occurrence apparently.....
Kind regards
----------
From: XXXXX
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2003 15:31:30 +0100
To: YYYYY
Subject: RE: Standing CommitteeIt was 8-6 - the clerk read it out wrong initially. The frustrating thing was that one of the Labour members was willing to vote the other way if it made the difference - but because if he did it would have been 7-7, the Government would have won on the Chairman's casting vote. Which means that if Dr Evan Harris, the Lib Dem health spokesman had bothered to turn up, the Government would have lost 8-7. Infuriating.
From: YYYYY
Sent: 04 July 2003 12:49
To: XXXXX
Subject: RE: Standing CommitteeCan you confirm, the outcome of the vote. I believed it was a majority of 7 to 6 in favour of the directive. I believe you have said it was 8 to 6. Please clarify this when you have a moment. I will shortly be writing a press release on yesterday's meeting.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday July 8 2003
updated on Friday December 10 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/07/08/uk_votes_to_adopt_eu_supplements_directive.htm
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