Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to transfer oversight of cannabis-based medicinal products to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Home Office is the lead department for controlled drug legislation. The Department for Health and Social care and its arms’ length bodies, including the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (‘MHRA’), have responsibility for healthcare and medicines policy.

The Government has no plans to change this. The two departments work together with the MHRA and other agencies on issues related to the use of controlled drugs in healthcare and therefore share responsibility for policy and governance relating to cannabis-based medicinal products.