DHSC FOI 1652371 reply 13 November 2025

Authority case reference: FOI-1652371

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ACMD evidence and current review

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Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health and Social Care
39 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0EU

www.gov.uk/dhsc

Mr Pete Lindsay
By email to: [personal email redacted]
13 November 2025

Dear Mr Lindsay,

Freedom of Information Request Reference FOI-1652371

Thank you for your request dated 27 October to the Department of Health and Social Care
(DHSC), a copy of which can be found in the accompanying annex.

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

DHSC holds information relevant to your request.

However, to provide the information as it is currently framed would exceed the appropriate
cost limit set out in the FOIA.

Section 12(1) of the FOIA means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a
request for information if they estimate the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate
limit. The appropriate limit for DHSC is set at £600, which represents the cost of one
person spending 24 working hours determining whether we hold the information, and then
locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

Initial searches for the information you requested returned more than 110,000 items. We
have estimated that the cost of going through these to determine which are in scope of
your request and extracting the relevant documents would exceed the appropriate limit.
Consequently, we will not be answering your request.

Although we cannot answer your request at the moment, we may be able to answer a
refined request within the cost limit. You may wish to consider, for example:

• Significantly reducing the amount of information you are requesting. For example,
reducing your request to one or two of its numbered parts.
• Reducing the types of information you are requesting.
• Reducing the timeframe of your request.
• Specifying the individuals or groups you are requesting correspondence between.

Please be aware that we cannot guarantee at this stage that a refined request would fall
within the FOIA cost limit, or that other exemptions will not apply.

Home Office may also hold information relevant to your request. Contact details for Home
Office can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office.

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It may also be helpful to clarify that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD)
is an independent scientific advisory body. The Government has confidence in its ability to
consider the full breadth of the evidence, including the experience of patients. Please be
advised that DHSC is an observer on the ACMD Cannabis-Based Products for Medicinal
Use Workgroup. Following publication of the ACMD’s report, DHSC, Home Office and
other relevant government departments will review the findings and any recommendations
carefully before acting.

If you are not satisfied with the handling of your request, you can request we undertake an
internal review. If doing so, it would be helpful for you to be explicit which areas of the
Freedom of Information response you consider dissatisfactory. Complaints to us should be
sent to freedomofinformation@dhsc.gov.uk or to the address at the top of this letter and be
submitted within 40 working days of the date of this letter.

Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communication.

If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may complain directly
to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Generally, the ICO cannot make a
decision unless you have already complained to us about our original response and
received our response to your complaint and, if applicable, our internal review decision.
You should raise your concerns with the ICO within six weeks of your last substantive
contact with us.

Guidance on contacting the ICO can be found at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us and
information about making a complaint can be found at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team
freedomofinformation@dhsc.gov.uk

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Annex  
 
Dear Health Secretary and DHSC FOI Team, 
  
Thank you for your continued engagement on this subject. I am submitting the attached 
Freedom of Information request concerning the equality and impact assessments 
undertaken during the drafting of the 2018 Misuse of Drugs Regulations. My purpose is 
to assist in ensuring that the evidential record around Regulation 16A(3) remains 
complete, transparent, and aligned with the Home Office’s duties under the Equality Act 
2010. 
  
I recognise the statutory 20-working-day timeframe and appreciate the effort required to 
collate and review historical material. Please find the detailed questions set out below, 
seeking information held by the Home Office relating to the development, implementation 
and subsequent consideration of Regulation 16A(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 
2001, as inserted by S.I. 2018 Nos. 1055 and 1056. 
  
Whilst some of these questions may have been raised previously in outline, I am now 
restating them formally under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to ensure that any 
recorded information identified or considered in response is handled in accordance with 
the Act’s provisions and timescales. 
  
This request falls into three categories: 
  
A. Development and Laying of Regulation 16A(3) 
(1 January – 30 November 2018) 
1. All correspondence, policy submissions, working drafts, clearance notes or impact-
assessment material created or received by the Department between 1 January 
2018 and 30 November 2018 that were taken into account in shaping, clearing or 
agreeing Regulation 16A(3) or any related clinical-governance guidance. 
2. Any legal advice or analysis obtained or considered within that period concerning 
the Department’s statutory and clinical responsibilities in relation to cannabis-based 
products for medicinal use, and the equality or patient-safety implications of 
prohibiting smoked administration. 
3. Any equality-screening, equality-impact or other assessment material (including 
drafts or internal sign-off forms) used in informing departmental or ministerial 
decision-making during that period. 
  
B. Post-implementation Follow-up 
(from implementation of the 2018 Regulations up to the scoping of the Home Office-
led call for evidence, which closed on 17 October 2025) 
4. Any departmental or ministerial correspondence, briefing or review addressing 
Regulation 16A(3) or its clinical, prescribing or equality effects after implementation 
and before the point at which the Home Office-led call-for-evidence review on 
medicinal cannabis was scoped, defined or commissioned. 
5. Any record of ministerial comments, commitments or instructions to revisit the 2018 
framework and the Department’s follow-up actions in response. 
  
C. Scoping and Definition of the Home Office-led Call for Evidence

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6. Please confirm what role DHSC has played in the scoping and definition of the
Home Office-led review of cannabis-based products for medicinal use now being
completed by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).
7. Please provide copies of any correspondence, briefing, or minutes of
meetings between DHSC, the Home Office, or the ACMD regarding the
establishment, remit or scope of the review.
8. If DHSC was consulted on or contributed to the formulation of any terms of
reference or specifications for that review, please provide copies of those
documents and any comments or submissions from DHSC officials or Ministers.
9. Given that any potential contract-award and evidence-gathering phases are
now concluded, please confirm whether any relevant information is being withheld
on commercial-confidentiality grounds and the reasons for doing so.

This request forms part of the ongoing correspondence already acknowledged by the
Department, including the open letter of June 2025, Discrimination by
Design (September 2025), and Supplementary Annexes D and E (October 2025),
together with my formal submission to the Home Office-led call for evidence, which
closed on 17 October 2025.

I appreciate that officials must be able to provide frank advice to Ministers without fear of
premature disclosure. However, the information sought here concerns work completed and
implemented in 2018 and subsequent follow-up actions up to and including the period
in which the Home Office issued the requirement for the now-concluded call for
evidence.
Given the passage of time and the closure of the public evidence-gathering process, the
balance of the public interest now lies firmly in transparency over any pre-existing policy
rationale and equality considerations rather than preservation of Government’s need for
deliberative space. Accordingly, any reliance on section 35(1)(a) or related exemptions
should be accompanied by the Department’s full public-interest test.

Please confirm receipt of this request and respond within twenty working days as required
by the Act.

Yours faithfully

Pete Lindsay