Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to accelerate access to medicinal cannabis on the NHS for severely epileptic children.

The latest guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) demonstrates a clear need for more evidence to support routine prescribing and funding decisions for unlicensed cannabis-based products on the National Health Service.

We are working hard with the health system, industry and researchers to improve the knowledge base. This includes the design of clinical trials for children and young people with severe treatment resistant epilepsy.

NICE recommend two medicines – Sativex (treatment of spasticity in Multiple Sclerosis patients) and Epidyolex (treatment of seizures associated with two rare forms of epilepsy). These are licensed cannabis-based products which can be prescribed by specialist doctors, in cases where it is clinically appropriate and funded on the NHS.