To ask the Scottish Executive how many adverse reactions to vitamin and mineral supplements have been reported in each of the last 10 years.

The regulation and safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines Control Agency (MCA).

The MCA/Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) Yellow Card Scheme collates reports of suspected adverse reactions to medicines. The Yellow Card Scheme provides for voluntary reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions by general practitioners, hospital doctors, dentists, coroners, pharmacists and nurses. The MCA receives approximately 18,000 reports of suspected adverse reactions to medicines each year via the scheme. As the scheme is voluntary, not all adverse reactions are reported. The MCA also collates reports of suspected adverse reactions to vitamins and minerals.

The following table provides a breakdown of the number of reports of suspected reactions received through the Yellow Card Scheme in association with vitamin and minerals over the last 10 complete years.

It is important to remember that a report of a suspected reaction does not necessarily mean that the vitamin or mineral caused it.

Vitamin and mineral products are often supplied without prescription, and are often taken without advice from doctors or pharmacists. It is generally recognised that the reporting rate for medicines supplied over the counter (OTC) is lower than that of suspected adverse reactions associated with prescription medicines. To encourage reporting of suspected adverse reactions with OTC medicines, the Yellow Card Scheme was recently extended to include nurses as reporters, and will be extended to include patient reporting via NHS Direct in the near future.