Medical Cannabis (Access) Bill

Jane Hunt Excerpts

Friday 10th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jane Hunt]

Is this more about trust? If the regulations are in place, that would give GPs and other medical professionals the chance to be bold. This is a bit like what I said to the Secretary of State for Education about the dreadful case of poor Arthur, which was about social workers having the opportunity to be bold. We should recognise that these people have years of professionalism behind them, so why not give them the opportunity to be bold? The Bill proposed by the hon. Member for Manchester, Withington (Jeff Smith) has given us an opportunity to say, “We support you to make those decisions. Please make them and let us have that evidence as well.”

[Sally-Ann Hart]

I agree with my hon. Friend. We all have huge sympathy with the Bill. I hope that, with the debate and the discussions going on today, we all—the manufacturers, the Ministers and us—are emboldened to look at how we can promote the matter and engage with manufacturing industries so that we have a better choice of cannabis-based medicines for prescription purposes on the NHS. It is important to note that.

Obviously, as has been discussed today, we are all aiming for the same thing. We sit as Members of different parties in this House, but we very often want the same thing. We want to create a better healthcare system. We want to create a better medicine prescribing system. We want to reduce poverty and disadvantage. We want to create better education systems and so on. Sometimes, though, we have a different way of doing it. That is what the debate entails; it is about the way that we do things.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sally-Ann Hart]

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention, but if we only had debate in Committee, many hon. Members would not get to put forward their view, because they might not be on that Committee.

[Jane Hunt]

My hon. Friend has dealt with some of what I was going to say. I would say that today has been an amazing achievement for hon. Members, particularly Opposition Members. You have done well—

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. Please, it is “hon. Members” not “you”. I have not achieved anything at all today.

[Jane Hunt]

I apologise unreservedly. Hon. Members have achieved a great deal today and should not be disheartened. The people watching and listening should also not be disheartened because they have done a great thing today.

[Sally-Ann Hart]

Hon. Members have made great strides today.

To go back to clause (3)(1)(a), which proposes that a commission should be established to,

“propose a framework for the assessment of cannabis-based medicines and their suitability for prescription in England”,

I have already said that there is a regulatory pathway in place under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 and medicines legislation. It would be inappropriate to establish a commission or any other body that aimed to circumvent existing regulatory controls or to subject medicinal cannabis to any less stringent assessment than is the case for other medicines used for serious or chronic conditions.