Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to commission an independent inquiry into the (a) scientific validity, (b) cost and (c) potential misuse of hair strand testing for methamphetamine in family court proceedings.

The Ministry of Justice has no plans to commission an independent inquiry into the (a) scientific validity, (b) cost and (c) potential misuse of hair strand testing for methamphetamine in family court proceedings.

The President of the Family Division has set up a working group of the Family Justice Council on the use of hair strand testing in the family courts. We await the group’s findings with interest.