Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of imposing civil rather than criminal penalties on people found in possession of drugs for personal use.

There are no plans to decriminalise illicit drug use. The law allows for the prosecution of those who commit offences, including drug possession and supply. The police have a range of alternative options within the out of court resolution framework (such as community resolutions, cautions and deferred prosecutions) to direct individuals into meaningful interventions to address their drug use, and divert them away from the criminal justice system.