Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with NICE on the prescription of medicinal cannabis oil for patients with (a) cerebral palsy and (b) arthritis.

The Department has not discussed with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) the prescription of medicinal cannabis oil for patients with cerebral palsy and arthritis.

NICE is the independent expert body that develops authoritative, evidence-based guidance for the National Health Service on whether drugs and other treatments represent a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources. NICE is developing guidance on the prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products by October 2019. It will be based on the best available international evidence and will have been produced using NICE’s world-renowned process for delivering such guidance.

Following a public consultation on the draft scope, the guidance will focus on the use of cannabis-based products in the treatment of chronic pain, intractable nausea and vomiting, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy, conditions where the evidence is currently most advanced. A consultation on the draft guidance is expected in the summer.