Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were arrested for possession of cannabis in each of the last 10 years.

The Home Office does not hold this data centrally. The Home Office collects data on the number of people arrested for drug offences and on the number stopped and searched on suspicion of drug offences. However, cannabis possession offences cannot be separately identified. These data are published in the annual Police Powers and Procedures statistical publication, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales

The next release is scheduled for Thursday 19th November and will cover the period up to the year ending 31 March 2015.