Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 108268 on Cannabis: Medical Treatment, what work his Department is undertaking with (a) NHS England, (b) NHS Improvement and (c) the National Institute of Health Research to develop a greater evidence base for cannabis-based medicinal products; and what the planned timeframe is for making progress in that area of medicine.

The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) has identified research on cannabis-based medicinal products as a priority and has issued two calls for research applications in this area.

NHS England and NHS Improvement and the NIHR are developing a programme of two randomised controlled trials into early onset and genetic generalised epilepsy. These will compare Cannabidiol (CBD) only and CBD plus delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol containing medicines to placebo. The aim is to design safe and scientifically robust trials for adults and children with severe epilepsy, including those patients currently using cannabis-based medicinal products.