What will the Home Secretary do to help police forces to prioritise resources when they are faced with cannabis clubs, of which most members require cannabis for medicinal reasons, and an epidemic of Spice at the same time, which poses very serious risks to both health and law and order—both are class B drugs?

Operating priorities are local decisions, but what I can tell the hon. Lady is that the priority of the Department is to make sure that the police have the resources that they need to do their job, which is why we took steps to increase public investment in our police.

The Department and Public Health England (PHE) are working with other Government departments to help prevent young people, including those from deprived backgrounds, from developing alcohol and drug problems. This includes supporting investment in programmes which have a positive impact on young people, giving them the confidence, resilience and risk management skills to resist drug use. Examples of this include:

- funding Mentor UK’s Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service which provides practical advice and tools based on the best international evidence, including briefing sheets for teachers; and

- running Rise Above, an online resilience building resource, aimed at 11- to 16-year-olds, which provides resources to help young people develop skills to make positive choices for their health, including avoiding drug use.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing their local need for alcohol and drug treatment and commissioning a range of accessible services to meet these needs.

PHE works with local authorities to support them in this vital work, by providing them with data, guidance and other bespoke support to help them tackle health inequalities.

It is for individual local authorities to decide what resources to commit to different public health services, including alcohol treatment services, to meet the needs of their local populations.

Under the current system of 50% retained business rates, local authorities that receive more in business rates income than their baseline funding level contribute through a tariff, which is used to top up local authorities that receive less business rates income than their baseline funding level.

The Government has been clear that under any future system there will continue to be redistribution of business rates between local authorities to take account of their relative needs.

Data on National Health Service spending on treatment of alcohol related conditions is not collected centrally. However, the costs to the NHS in England associated with alcohol misuse are estimated at £3.5 billion each year.

The Government is committed to addressing the health harms relating to alcohol abuse. In 2016, the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) published low risk drinking guidelines to provide the public with the most up to date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking. These are available at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-consumption-advice-on-low-risk-drinking

The drinking guidelines are included in a range of public health messaging, including Public Health England’s (PHE’s) ‘One You’ campaigns and on the ‘NHS Choices’ website to encourage the public to drink within the CMOs’ guidelines.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning effective alcohol prevention and treatment services based on an assessment of local need, and they are supported by PHE in this work by providing data, value for money tools, topical briefings, and advice on good practice to help local authorities meet the needs of their local population.

The Government is also developing a new alcohol strategy which will allow us to consider the changing landscape of alcohol use and to target vulnerable people who need support most with effective, evidence-based interventions.

As I announced on 19 June, the Government is undertaking a two-phase review looking at the scheduling of cannabis. Part one of the review considered international evidence for the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of cannabis and cannabis based medicinal products. Professor Dame Sally Davies, who also serves as the Chief Medical Advisor to the Government and Chief Medical Officer for England, took this forward independently.

This part of the review is now complete and the report was published on 3 July. Also on 3 July, the Home Secretary commissioned the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to undertake part two of the Review. Supported by the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs will consider the appropriate schedule for cannabis related products, based on the balance of harms and public health requirements. The ACMD will not reassess the evidence issued by Professor Dame Sally Davies.

I can confirm that my department has not received any representations from pharmaceutical companies on the use of medicinal cannabis in the last two years. In the last 12 months, the Home Office has discussed the potential use of Epidiolex as an alternative option for treatment with the manufacturer, GW Pharmaceuticals.

Given the Home Office’s role leading on regulatory governance it is not for the department to provide funding for multi-centre trials on the medicinal and therapeutic benefits of cannabis and cannabis-based products.

All national level surveillance data, including estimates of numbers of people tested, diagnosed and treated, and the burden of advanced liver disease related to hepatitis C are available in the Public Health England (PHE) annual reports: Hepatitis C in England report and Shooting Up: infections among people who inject drugs in the United Kingdom, available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693917/HCV_in_England_2018.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shooting-up-infections-among-people-who-inject-drugs-in-the-uk

PHE is currently finalising a tool which has Operational Delivery Network level estimates of hepatitis C prevalence, diagnoses, treatment and severe hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver disease in people who inject drugs. This tool is expected to be published on gov.uk in the coming weeks.

The new tool will replace data the HCV commissioning template which contains data at Drug Action Team level:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hepatitis-c-commissioning-template-for-estimating-disease-prevalence

Controlled drugs licences are issued in accordance with Government policy. No licences for pharmaceutical companies to grow and process medicinal cannabis for exportation to other countries have been issued.