Licences to grow and manufacture CBD products domestically

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Home Office should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Callum Swirkowski

Dear Home Office,

I wish to make a request for information under the freedom of information act 2000(FOI2000).

This request is in relation to industrial hemp licencing, and manufacture of CBD products domestically. The CBD market is dependent on Imports and/or aquisitions from EU countries that do not count as imports. Meaning it is going to be very tricky for the market , once the UK leaves the EU, meaning every CBD seller would either need a grow licence and/or an import licence, to produce CBD products from scratch or import pre-processed products that are not exempt under missuse of drugs regulations 2001(MDR2001).

Under regulation 12 of MDR 2001, an individual/business entity can be issued with a licence to cultivate cannabis, and this licence type is universal and granted on its merits, irrespective of the plants THC content, but growing plants of 0.2% THC or less carries a lesser licence fee according to Misuse of drugs fees regulations 2010(MDFR2010). If this understanding is incorrect I expect the home office to correct my assumptions.

I request the information in the following bullet points.

-The total number of individuals/business entities granted with a licence/s to grow cannabis plants of 0.2% THC or less and payed the prescribed fee for this licence/s under MDFR2010 regulation 2. All within the last 3 calendar years and irrespective of the number of times a licence has been issued to any given individual/business entity.

-Out of the figure in the above point, I would like to know how many of those individuals/business entities have been granted, the cultivation licence/s also mentioned in the previous point, for the purposes of manufacturing products for human consumption?

-Out of the figure in the above point, I would like to know how many individuals/business entities were granted the previously mentioned licence/s, for non medicinal products for human consumption and/or any product exempt from control under MDR2001?

That is all for this request thank you

Yours faithfully,

Callum Swirkowski