Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many current licences there are for growing Hemp in the UK.

The cannabis plant can be grown for the production of cannabis-based medicinal products and these would be authorised by Home Office controlled drugs licences which could include other controlled drugs depending on the nature of the pharmaceutical manufacturing taking place on any given site.

There are no licences for growing industrial hemp for the production of medicinal cannabis. This is because Home Office Industrial Hemp licences are only granted for the non-controlled parts of the plant (seeds and fibre/stalk) and these materials would not be used to produce cannabis-based products for medicinal use.

There are currently 110 extant licences to cultivate low THC cannabis (Industrial Hemp) in the UK. The licences are generally issued for a validity period of three growing seasons and this number therefore will include licences issued in 2020, 2021 and 2022.