Written question asked by Nigel Evans (Conservative) on Monday, 9 February 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 February 2009. It was answered by Alan Campbell (Labour) on Monday, 23 February 2009 on behalf of the Home Office.

Cannabis: Crime

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people (a) were arrested and (b) received on-the-spot fines for possession of cannabis in 2008.

Answer: The information requested is not collected centrally.The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, police force area and age group, covering categories such as violence against the person, robbery and drug offences. From these centrally reported data we are not able to identify specific offences from within the main offence groups.The offence of possession of cannabis was added to the penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme on 28 January 2009. No PNDs were therefore issued in 2008; data for 2009 should be published by the Ministry of Justice in November 2010.

Secondary information