The science and technology com- mittee said the therapy is not effi- cacious or, it does not work beyond the placebo effect British MPs have restarted the controversial debate on the efficacy of homeopathy after a House of Commons committee advised the government to stop funding homeopathy treatments on the National Health Service as there is no scientific proof that it works. The science and technolo- gy committee, in its report on homeopathy, said the therapy is not efficacious or, it does not work beyond the placebo effect, and that explanations for why home- opathy would work are sci- entifically implausible. At present, there are four homeopathic hospitals un- der the NHS in the UK. "Homeopathy is a placebo treatment and the govern- ment should have a policy on prescribing placebos," the committee said. "The government is reluc- tant to address the appropri- ateness and ethics of pre- scribing placebos to patients, which relies on some degree of patient deception. Prescribing of placebos is not consistent with informed patient choice, which the govern- ment claims is very important, as it means patients do not have all the information needed to make choice meaningful," the committee said, criticising the govern- ment's stand on homeopa- thy. The report recommend- ed that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regu- latory Agency (MHRA) should not allow labels on homeopathic medicines. "As they are not medicines, homeopathic products sho- uld no longer be licensed by the MHRA," it added. "It sets an unfortunate prece- dent for the department of health to consider that the existence of a community which believes that home- opathy works is `evidence' enough to continue spend- ing public money on it," chairman of the committee Phil Willis said.