Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department will consider enabling electronic prescribing for cannabis-based products for medicinal use, in line with other controlled drugs.

Rules around the electronic prescribing of cannabis-based medicines are no different to other drugs regulated in Schedule 2 to 5 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.

In England, the NHS Electronic Prescription Service enables the electronic transmission of prescriptions for Schedule 2 to 5 controlled drugs. As part of the robust system of governance and restrictions around the most addictive and harmful drugs, all private healthcare provider prescriptions for Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs cannot be transmitted by electronic means and must be issued on a paper FP10PCD prescription form. All paper copies of private prescriptions of Schedule 2 and 3 controlled drugs must be submitted to the NHS Business Services Authority. NHS England’s Controlled Drug Accountable Officers have a statutory duty to monitor the management and use of controlled drugs in the National Health Service and private healthcare.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) does not provide guidance on the use of medicinal cannabis. The MHRA provides guidance on manufacturing, importing, distributing, and supplying unlicensed medicines, which includes cannabis-based products for medicinal use in humans.

Current guidelines on the prescribing and use of cannabis-based medicinal products, reference code NG144, is published on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence website, which is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/