Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of restrictions on the use of electronic prescriptions for the issuing of medicinal cannabis products.

Rules around the electronic prescribing of cannabis-based medicines are no different to other drugs regulated in Schedule 2 to 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.

In England, the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) enables the electronic transmission of prescriptions for Schedule 2 to 5 controlled drugs. As part of the robust system of governance and restrictions around the most addictive and harmful drugs, all private healthcare provider prescriptions for Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs cannot be transmitted by electronic means and must be issued on a paper FP10PCD prescription form. All paper copies of private prescriptions of Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs must be submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority. NHS England Controlled Drug Accountable Officers have a statutory duty to monitor the management and use of controlled drugs in the National Health Service and private healthcare.

Similar legislative and governance arrangements are in place in Northern Ireland concerning the management and use of controlled drugs. All private prescribing of Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs must be issued on a paper PCD1 prescription form, which, once dispensed, are submitted to the Business Services Organisation, in line with requirements in the Misuse of Drugs (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2002. There is currently no electronic transmission of prescriptions in primary care in Northern Ireland.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not provide guidance on the use of medicinal cannabis. The MHRA provides guidance on manufacturing, importing, distributing, and supplying unlicensed medicines, which includes cannabis-based products for medicinal use in humans.

Current guidelines on the prescribing and use of cannabis-based medicinal products, specifically guideline NG144, are published on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/

The guidelines have been endorsed by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland as applicable within Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence develops its guidance independently and keeps its published guidelines under active surveillance, so that it is able to update its recommendations in light of any significant new evidence.