Members of the Parliamentary All Party Group on Complementary and Alternative Therapies had the pharmacist's role in the field explained to them on November 1 by Professor William Dawson (chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's working group on complementary therapies). Professor Dawson told assembled Parliamentarians and others how the Society was working to achieve a regulatory framework covering the quality and safety of complementary treatments in parallel with the Medicines Control Agency's work on a draft European Directive on herbal products. He said that complementary medicines would be included in the Society's continuing professional development programme and that a review of the indicative pharmacy degree syllabus included discussion on the need for complementary medicines training. Pharmacists were the only primary care team members with a sufficiently wide knowledge to advise people effectively on medicines and they were well able to work with complementary professionals, Professor Dawson said.