The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and you can view it here:

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20813

Thank you for your e-petition.

The Government supports the right for all people, including spiritualists and mediums, to practise their religious beliefs without facing discrimination, so long as their behaviour is not an offence against law and order and public decency. As the petition rightly recognises, one of the purposes of the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951 was to secure reasonable toleration and freedom from vexatious prosecution for spiritual workers. This was achieved by the abolition of the Witchcraft Act 1735 and by exempting persons purporting to possess spiritualistic powers from prosecution under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824. Under the Interpretation Act 1978 the repeal of the 1951 Act does not have the effect of reviving these earlier Acts.

The second purpose of the 1951 Act was to provide express provision for the punishment of persons who fraudulently purport to act as spiritualistic mediums or to exercise powers of telepathy, clairvoyance or other similar powers. A person could not be convicted of an offence unless he acted for reward. Even at the time of its passage through Parliament it was recognised that this second object was not strictly necessary since the ordinary law against fraud and false pretences would be sufficient. It was only included in the Bill to mark the “special detestation for this particular kind of heartless fraud”.

The case for the retention of this provision was further reduced in May last year with the introduction of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs): on which there were two rounds of written consultation: in December 2005 and May 2007. The CPRs apply to the activities of all persons acting in trade or business connected with the supply of goods and services to consumers. They are intended to ensure that consumers can make free and informed choices.

The CPRs prohibit those activities which are misleading or are otherwise unfair. So the Regulations do not affect the supply of spiritualistic services in themselves. They will however apply to misleading activities related to the supply of such services for the purposes of a business. Consumers must be protected from misleading activities by traders connected with the supply of all services, including spiritualistic services.

The CPRs are enforced by the Office of Fair Trading and local authority Trading Standards Services who will concentrate their activities on areas of significant consumer detriment.