Home Office: All Documents

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has considered reclassifying date rape drugs such as flunitrazepam and gamma-hydroxybutyrate as weapons.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Gamma-Hydroxybutyric Acid (GHB) and Flunitrazepam are controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. GHB, and the related substances Gamma-Butyrolactone (GBL) and 1,4-Butanediol (1,4-BD), were reclassified from Class C to Class B in 2022, in line with advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (‘ACMD’). Flunitrazepam is controlled as a Class C drug in common with other benzodiazepines. Ministers are obliged to consider advice from the ACMD before making to changes to the classification of drugs. The Government has no current plans to reclassify these drugs.

Written Question

Firearms

Tuesday 23rd December 2025

Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when will the Government launch its public consultation on the controls on (a) shotguns and (b) other firearms.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February this year, included a commitment to having a public consultation on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns, to bring them more into line with the controls on other firearms in the interests of public safety. We intend to publish this consultation shortly.