Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications of banning all psychoactive substances on medical research.

The Psychoactive Substances Bill, introduced in the House of Lords on 28 May 2015, will tackle the reckless trade in psychoactive substances. The Government attaches a high priority to bona fide scientific research. Schedule 1 to the Bill already excludes all investigational medicinal products and research regulated by the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004.

The Government is engaging with the scientific community so that those conducting bona fide research which involves the human consumption of psychoactive substances fall outside of the scope of the Bill, and expect to table Government amendments on this issue.