The Home Office to suppress a report from its own expert adviser that recommended decriminalising possession of drugs.

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The Home Office has won a battle to suppress a report from its own expert adviser that recommended decriminalising possession of drugs.

A tribunal has concluded that the document by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs should be kept secret. The decision follows a three-year freedom of information battle to force the government to release the report, which is the only one in the council’s history not to be published.

The Home Office argued that because the policies discussed in the paper were under consideration, it was not compelled by freedom of information laws. The contents of the report are known only because one former member of the council blew the whistle.

Last year Professor Alex Stevens submitted evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee that the document recommended decriminalisation. Stevens explained that the report, which was written in 2016 and that he part-wrote, suggested “repealing the part of the Misuse of Drugs Act that makes it a criminal offence to possess controlled drugs”. The move would “align it with the Psychoactive Substances Act, which does not criminalise possession outside custodial settings”.

In 2019, Stevens quit the advisory council after claiming candidates were being vetted for their political and drug policy views. Speaking for the first time about the issue, he said: “This all raises the question of whether the council is an independent public body there to create independent and transparent advice or if it is a creature there to serve the whims of the Home Office.

“It’s possible that if drug possession had been decriminalised, then it would have been easier to provide the sort of treatment that saves people’s lives.”

Last month, MPs on the home affairs committee questioned Chris Philp, the minister for policing, over the report but he refused to discuss the document or share it privately with MPs. He said: “Parliament has a proper role to scrutinise but it’s important that ministers can have confidential conversations with officials.”

Crispin Blunt, the co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for drug policy reform, claimed successive governments had not wanted drug policy “based on evidence”. He said: “We are dealing with a decades-long strategic failure.”

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