Today health secretary Andy Burnham announced plans to ensure that all practitioners of unlicensed herbal medicines, traditional Chinese medicines and acupuncture must register with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council. Total Politics asked Liberal Democrat science spokesman Dr Evan Harris MP for his views

Do these proposed reforms go far enough?

I don’t think that treatments with little scientific evidence base should be regulated, as professions, because it may give the impression that there is both a scientific basis and a strong evidence base for the use of the intervention.

There are plans for a pilot scheme in the NHS for alternative medicines to treat lower back pain, following recent study in Northern Ireland, suggesting that alternative medicines improve patient wellbeing and saved NHS costs. Do you agree?

I think it’s wrong to dress up a so called “pilot” as research. Anyone looking at the so called Northern Ireland “pilot” and its so called “evaluation” would see that it is scientifically meaningless. Therefore, it’s impossible to see how in these straitened times, this political imposition on primary care trusts can be seen as worthwhile.

What’s the Lib Dem view on alternative medicine?

Our policy is that the National Institute of Clinical Excellence should have its role expanded. It should look at conventional medicines as well as alternative medicines to check that they are evidence-based before the NHS uses them. It should also ensure they pass cost effectiveness thresholds. There should be an independent evaluation. That’s what’s needed. Not a non-trial pseudo-scientific research exercise that will, like in Northern Ireland, prove nothing.