Watch out in tomorrow’s Queens Speech to see if Family Courts will be making evidence such as expert witness statements available for public scrutiny. For anyone who’s interested and hasn’t seen one before, here’s what a sample Hair Drug Test statistical analysis looks like. These are presented, often by an expert witness, to magistrates presiding over child custody cases.

Prof Nutt’s three main factors that determine how much harm a drug can cause includes:

a) the physical harm to the individual user caused by the drug; b) the tendency of the drug to induce dependence; c) the effect of drug use on families, communities and society. His controversial new ranking of harm is published here

It is the third of these factors that is least understood and perhaps what the Government finds so hard to swallow. Later this month the Schools & Safeguarding Children Bill will grant media access to medical evidence in child care hearings (including hair alcohol tests and hair drug tests) and may help in broadening understanding.