Home Office FOI2026/08343 response 10 July 2026

JBD request: 19 June 2026 · JBD filing reference: FoI_1C1c · Authority case reference: FOI2026/08343

JBD internal filing reference: FoI_1C1c
Authority case reference: FOI2026/08343

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Home Office patient assessment and review

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Pete Lindsay
pete.lindsay@justicebydesign.org.uk

10 July 2026

2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
www.gov.uk/home-office
FOIRequests@homeoffice.gov.uk

Dear Pete Lindsay
Freedom of Information Request: FOI2026/08343

Thank you for your email of 19 June 2026, which we have included as Annex A. Your
request has been handled as a request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (FOIA).

We have carried out a thorough search and reviewed the files we hold that relate to the
decision to restrict smoking as a means of administration of Cannabis Based Medicinal
Products. We have established that the Home Office does not hold the information which
you have requested.
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review
of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months
to foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk, quoting reference FOI2026/08343. If you ask for an
internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the
response.
As part of any internal review the Department's handling of your information request would
be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you
were to remain dissatisfied after an internal review, you would have a right of complaint to
the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the FOIA.
A link to the Home Office Information Rights Privacy Notice can be found in the following
link. This explains how we process your personal
information: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/information-rights-privacy-notice
Yours sincerely
Public Safety Group

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ANNEX A 
 
This is a new request.  
It is submitted as part of an ongoing research programme examining the  
development, implementation and effects of the regulatory framework governing  
cannabis-based products for medicinal use.  
Annex A is a Home Office ministerial submission entitled:  
"Cannabis: Options on Definition of Cannabis Based Medicinal Products"  
dated 13 September 2018.  
Annex A states:  
"DHSC colleagues assess the likelihood that specialist clinicians prescribing  
cannabis for the purposes of smoking to be extremely low"  
and further concludes that the circumstances in which cannabis could legitimately be  
prescribed for smoking would be very narrow.  
Annex B contains the Home Office response to FOI2026/03126, which confirmed  
that the Public Sector Equality Duty applied to the Home Office when SI 2018/1055  
was made.  
Annex C contains the Home Office response to FOI2026/06253.  
Requested Information  
1. Source of assessment  
Please provide the recorded information identifying the source of the assessment  
attributed to DHSC colleagues within Annex A.  
This includes any recorded information supplied to the Home Office, relied upon by  
the Home Office, or otherwise informing the statements that:  
(a) the likelihood of specialist clinicians prescribing cannabis for smoking would be  
extremely low; and  
(b) the circumstances in which cannabis could legitimately be prescribed for smoking  
would be very narrow.  
FoI_1C1c  
19/06/2026  
2. Consideration of foreseeable patient behaviour  
Please provide any recorded information held by the Home Office concerning  
consideration of patients who were anticipated to smoke prescribed cannabis despite  
the proposed restriction discussed in Annex A.  
3. Consideration of legal consequences  
Please provide any recorded information concerning the anticipated legal  
consequences for a patient who possessed a lawfully prescribed cannabis-based  
product for medicinal use but subsequently administered that product by smoking.  
This includes any recorded consideration of:  
• continued eligibility or otherwise for any exemption arising under Regulation 16A;  
• criminal liability under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971;  
• treatment of remaining prescribed quantities held by the patient;  
• police enforcement implications; and  
• prosecution implications.  
4. Section 149 Equality Act 2010  
Please provide any recorded information evidencing consideration, for the purposes  
of section 149 Equality Act 2010, of:  
(a) the patient cohort referenced in Annex A; and  
(b) the consequences described in Question 3.  
If no information is held in response to Questions 2, 3 or 4, please identify whether  
responsibility for those considerations lay with another department or public authority  
and, if so, which one.