THE Home Office is returning the cannabis oil it confiscated from the mother of a boy with severe epilepsy, a family spokesman has said.

Charlotte Caldwell tried to bring the medication into Heathrow Airport in order to treat her 12-year-old son Billy, but it was removed by border officials. He is now in hospital and said to be seriously ill.

A family spokesman said: "The medication that she brought into the country and was confiscated, this medication is on the way to the hospital."

Cannabis oil containing the psychoactive element THC is illegal in the UK. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: "This morning, I've used an exceptional power as Home Secretary to urgently issue a licence to allow Billy Caldwell to be treated with cannabis oil.

"This is a very complex situation, but our immediate priority is making sure Billy receives the most effective treatment possible in a safe way.

"We have been in close contact with Billy's medical team overnight and my decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency.

"The Policing Minister met with the family on Monday and since then has been working to reach an urgent solution."

Charlotte Caldwell said they had "achieved the impossible" in getting the licence for the treatment of her son with cannabis oil.

She criticised the "dreadful, horrific, cruel experience" that has deeply affected 12-year-old Billy, saying: "His little body has been completely broken and his little mind.

"I truly believe that somewhere in the Home Office there's someone with a heart and I truly believe that Billy was pulling on their heart strings."

She vowed to keep up her fight to allow others in the UK to have access to the medication they need.

"My experience leaves me in no doubt that the Home Office can no longer play a role in the administration of medication for sick children in our country," she said.

"Children are dying in our country and it needs to stop now."

On Monday, Caldwell, 50, from from Castlederg, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, flew with the boy and a six-month supply of the medication used to treat up to 100 seizures a day into the UK airport from Toronto, Canada.

She went on to accuse Policing Minister Nick Hurd of having "likely signed my son's death warrant".

On Saturday, she said the boy's condition had worsened since the medication ran out and warned that his seizures had intensified, pushing him into a "crisis situation".

But, she added, the Home Office had been working with the family "extremely hard" throughout the night to negotiate access to the medication.

Caldwell credits the oil with keeping the boy's seizures at bay, saying he was seizure-free for more than 300 days while using it.

Billy started the treatment in 2016 in the US, where medical marijuana is legal.

He became the first person in the UK to receive a prescription after his local GP in Northern Ireland, Brendan O'Hare, began writing scripts.

Dr O'Hare was summoned to a meeting with Home Office officials recently and told to stop.