Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of continuing observational trials for medical cannabis for families with severely epileptic children; and if he will he make a statement.

Observational studies would not provide robust evidence to inform future commissioning decisions and would delay a more useful and scientific study. The best course of action is to develop evidence via safe and robust clinical trials supported by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR).

A programme of two randomised controlled clinical trial are being developed by the NIHR. These trials will be critical in ensuring that evidence for cannabis-based medicinal products can be developed to plan future National Health Service commissioning decisions for the many hundreds of patients in the United Kingdom with refractory epilepsy. Industry also needs to step up and invest in robust clinical trials to improve understanding of how patients might benefit from these products.