Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of allowing hemp farming in the UK.
Defra will be commissioning a project on the potential use of underutilised, underdeveloped or novel crops, including hemp. We are also considering the role of hemp in the Bioeconomy and the opportunities this presents for UK farmers.
The provision to cultivate (under Home Office Licence) low THC Cannabis (industrial hemp) for seed and fibre production does already exist in the UK.