 The next item of business is a statement by Angela Constance on national mission on drugs update. The minister will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Angela Constance, minister, around 10 minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First and foremost I want to convey my deepest condolences to those who have lost a loved one and reaffirmed my commitment and that of this Government to saving and improving lives. Every life lost to a drug death is as tragic as it is unacceptable and during recess national records of Scotland published our annual drug related death report and confirmed that we lost 1,330 fellow citizens to drugs in Scotland in 2021. This remains a public health emergency. While there has been a slight decrease from the previous year for some groups of people and in some geographical areas deaths continue to rise, deaths among women for example increased again in 2021. This is particularly concerning and emphasises the need for us to be doing more for women and families. I am pleased to inform Parliament that Phoenix Futures Family Service and the first Aberlour child and mother house will come on stream soon and I have seen for myself the progress being made at River Garden at Ock and Crewth in developing new accommodation for women. There has been a reduction in the number of deaths amongst the under-25 age group though it remains too high as every death is one too many. A survey of young people on their drug and alcohol use has currently been analysed and we will use that information to co-produce service standards to meet the needs of our young people. As in previous years, the majority of drug deaths involved more than one drug while OPH remain the most prevalent. Benzodiazepines, particularly street Benzodiazepines, were implicated in nearly two thirds of all deaths. Fewer people developing problem drug use, tackling multiple disadvantage and supporting families and communities are some of the key outcomes from our recently published national mission plan alongside the need to reduce harms and promote treatment and recovery. The plan alongside Public Health Scotland's recent national drug-related death database report will help us to understand where and when to better target our response. The drug deaths task force has published its vital final report, changing lives in July and I want to once again thank all members past and present for their contribution. The final report contains 20 recommendations and 139 actions. It is comprehensive, critical and challenging but I ask for a bold blueprint for action and I welcome it. The task force asked that we publish an action plan within six months setting out how we will deliver its recommendations. I commit to doing that and ahead of my appearance at the joint committee next week, I will publish our first response to those recommendations in more detail. To take forward the task force report, we have also given ADPs £3 million to invest in their response. Officials will be working with ADPs about the priorities for this funding in line with the task force recommendations. The task force report is a challenge to all of us across Government, Parliament and wider society. Culture change is at the heart of the report's call for a system to be based on care, compassion and human rights. The Government will lead by example by developing a cross-government programme of work to support that change. That work focuses on three challenges, ensuring more holistic support, prioritising prevention and early intervention and tackling stigma. These cannot be delivered by one department or indeed by a Government alone, but will require co-ordinated action and commitment from a range of sectors in public life. That co-ordinated programme of work will be published in a cross-government action plan and will set out how other portfolios such as housing, justice, education, mental health and primary care, for example, will support the work of our national mission. This work will have to be delivered against the backdrop of the rising costs of living and the additional pressures that will undoubtedly bear on the individuals and the services that support them. The task force report is very clear that a cultural shift is required and how we treat, think and speak about people who use drugs. Stigma, it says, kills people. Stigma cuts deeper though and can blight many aspects of people's lives, not just drug and alcohol services. Stereotypes and prejudices put up unnecessary barriers that prevent people from flourishing. There are practical steps that all of us in Scotland should take to address the stigma, remove those barriers and improve access to services. As outlined in the programme for Government, we will publish a stigma action plan and I will provide a further update on this work in autumn. We know that there exist complex challenges around recruitment, retention and service design. We have recently established an expert group on workforce to identify immediate actions that can be taken to tackle those challenges. As recommended by the task force, the group will develop a workforce action plan. This plan will set out the longer-term actions required to deliver sustainable, skilled workforce, which is valued for the work that it does. I intend to return to Parliament in November to provide a further update on this work. It is also important to acknowledge that, throughout its lifespan, the task force regularly made recommendations and engaged with Government and others, meaning a wide range of activity it has proposed is already underway. The medication assisted treatment standards were initially developed by the task force and form a key part of our national mission. As members will know, I wrote a letter of direction to health boards integration authorities and local authorities in June to make sure that local partners are in no doubt about their commitment to the standards and their responsibility for their delivery, as well as our commitment as a Government. By the end of September, chief officers must publish improvement plans for implementing the standards. In line with the task force recommendation, those must involve and include the voices of those with lived and living experience. The continued roll-out of naloxone is another area of action that has been spearheaded by the task force with many of our emergency services, now routinely carrying naloxone as a result. That includes Police Scotland, which began the national roll-out of the naloxone carriage programme in August. However, we need to progress in other areas highlighted in the report, including improving accountability. To better do that, I established the national mission oversight group to provide scrutiny, challenge and expert advice to the Scottish Government and the wider sector, as services are adapted and improved to save lives. I have invited David Strang, the former chair of the drug desk task force to be the independent chair of this group, bringing his skills, knowledge and leadership to the oversight of the national mission. The task force also calls for the Scottish Government to continue its work with partners to implement a safer drug consumption facility. I can confirm that the Crown Office is considering the proposals that were shared with them at the end of June before briefing the Lord Advocate on the matter. I will update Parliament further once a response is received from the Lord Advocate. The UK Government has also published a white paper swift, certain tough, which outlines new consequences for drug possession, including measures such as passport confiscation. Increasing or expanding criminal sanctions have not in the past proven successful in preventing drug deaths. Given that some of those proposals may apply in Scotland, I have written to the UK Government setting out my concerns. Much of what is included in the paper in my view runs contrary to our public health approach, but I will certainly welcome views from across the chamber on that matter. In addition to consulting parliamentary colleagues, I will return to Parliament to provide updates on our work on stigma, workforce, MAT standards and the cross-government plan in the coming months. The Government will redouble our commitment to the national mission on drugs. The principles of which will guide us through this emergency are follow the evidence, the best to transform services and trust our lived and living experience. The independent national collaborative, chaired by Professor Alan Miller, will bring forward its vision for integrating human rights into national policy and local service design and delivery. The collaborative is recruiting to its change team and reference groups. It will ask tough questions and demand clear answers and I have no doubt that it will hold us all to account, ensuring that people with experience can participate in the decisions that affect them. September is international recovery month and so far I have had the pleasure of attending community events in Kilmariner, CymruCook and look forward to the forthcoming recovery walk in Paisley. The visibility of the recovery community reminds us all that people can and do recover. As well as saving lives, it is also our job, indeed, our mission to ensure that our families, our friends and our neighbours not only survive but thrive. The minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business that would be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press the request-to-speak button now and I call Sue Webber. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'd like to thank the minister for advanced sight of the statement this afternoon. Minister, when someone is brave enough to come forward for support, I think that we can all agree that they should not have to wait months for that help, but that is sadly exactly what's happening on the ground. One of my constituents, James, first sought help back in February this year, having been directed to the local recovery hub in south-west Edinburgh. James did not get his place in residential rehabilitation until the end of August. That's six months, half a year, of waiting and jumping through hoops and barriers, and that is someone who knew the system. There is nothing new in that statement that would have expedited this for James, just more working groups, oversight groups, far removed from what is needed, actual action on the ground. Access to residential rehabilitation should be immediate upon request. I do not need to remind the minister that this is all about grasping that window of opportunity to save a life, a window which is often both narrow and closing. I could hear the frustration and pain in James' voice as he relayed to me the process that he was forced to go through. To really cap it off when he did finally get his residential rehab placement, James was then means tested for it. Let me ask the minister, does she think that it's acceptable that people are having to wait six months for a placement and that local councils are, in some cases, means testing access to out-of-area residential rehabilitation placements? Let me say very directly to Ms Webber that people should not be waiting months for the treatment that they are assessed as needing and requiring. She will of course be aware, like I am, that access and assessments are done at a local level. Nonetheless, the action that this Government has taken is through the residential development working group, which has provided all areas with a good practice guide, which I expect to be implemented. All areas now have, or so they inform, operational pathways into residential rehabilitation. I will obviously appreciate any more detail about Ms Webber's constituents' experience of that pathway. It is also my job to ensure that there is funding, because I want to ensure that people who are assessed as requiring and clinically appropriate for residential rehabilitation can access it. We are monitoring and evaluating how each ADP area is using funding given to them or allocated to them by the Scottish Government. It may be a little comfort to Ms Webber's constituents. I appreciate that, but I know for a fact that, over the last financial year, over 500 placements were publicly funded via ADPs. That is a substantial increase. I know the financial investment that we have invested to date will increase capacity by 20 per cent. The point that she makes about using existing capacity within the system is well made. That is why, despite housing benefit being reserved to the UK Government, I developed a dual housing benefit fund. I do not want people having to choose between funding their residential care placement or their tenancy. There is always more work that we will do, but there is certainly more work that needs to be done at a local level. I thank the minister for advance sight of the statement and welcome the appointment of David Strang as the chair of the National Mission Oversight Group. While more strategies and structures are announced today, it is three years since the public health emergency was declared, and at least 2,500 people have died from drug overdoses. These are preventable deaths that leave behind devastated loved ones. I will hold the Government to account for this, for the lamentable lack of delivery on mat standards and for the cuts to ADP budgets that have only now been reinstated. We all want the same outcome for the deaths to stop and for people to be supported, accepted and able to live a life. In order to ensure a more rapid response, one that does not wait for the action plan or for a decision on priorities, will the Government ensure that those with a near fatal overdose are always contacted, including those who have already experienced a near fatal overdose and offered support, regardless of which health board they live in? I know that Mat Standard 3 says this, but the Drug Task Force report says that not all health boards are delivering this capacity and resorting issues. The minister makes mention of the impact of street benzos. When will we see the final clinical guidance and when will we see a strategy to address its widespread usage? Ms Baker is quite right that I have no doubt that across this chamber we all want to see the same outcomes and that those deaths are indeed preventable. I would like to remind Ms Baker with respect that, since I have come into this post over the past 18 months or so, there is a long list of action that has taken place, whether that is more timely reporting of suspected deaths, whether it is the establishment of a treatment target, there are the 191 projects that are being funded over five years to the tune of £35 million. I have provided continuity of funding to both front-line and third sector organisations and the 511 residential placements that have been funded. There is work going on right now to continue the widening of things such as distribution and to support families. It is a little disingenuous to decide that this is all about plans and no action. The point that she makes about Mat Standard is that we are on the same page with regard to the Mat Standard 3 and the quick action following a non-fatal overdose. It is absolutely crucial that it is a window of opportunity. She will be aware of the improvement plans that have to be published in all areas as a result of the ministerial direction. Some areas will be under quarterly reporting, some areas will be under monthly oversight and reporting arrangements. We are currently documenting the capacity of ADPs to improve and measure the standards, but I want Mat Standards to be implemented ASAP. That includes Mat Standard 3, because Mat Standards are not optional. They are necessary to saving lives. In terms of benzodiazepines, the progress that has been made with Mat Standards has shown some positive improvements in some areas in terms of people being able to access a better, more holistic treatment option. She will be aware of the work that we are funding again through Mat Standards in terms of the benzodiazepine treatment clinic in Fife. There are two sets of clinical guidance currently available in and around the prescription of benzodiazepines, but I would accept that there is much more work that we need to do to increase the confidence of medical practitioners in terms of using that guidance that already exists. Before I call the next MSP who wishes to ask a question, I would make 2.1. I would remind members who wish to seek to pose a question to ensure that their buzzers are pressed. 2. In order to get through as many members as possible who wish to ask a question, I will need more succinct questions and answers. I call Jo FitzPatrick, who is called by Craig Hoy. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I want to take this opportunity to add my condolences to those of the minister for all those who have lost a loved one. The minister is, I know, familiar with the important work of the Dundee Drugs Commission, which made a number of recommendations earlier this year. Can the minister advise what support has been provided to assist in taking forward the commission's recommendations and what monitoring is in place to ensure that sufficient and rapid progress is being made on these and on the implementation of the Mat Standards in Dundee? It is worth noting that Dundee is excelling in Mat Standards 3, but, as the minister said, it is all of the Mat Standards that count. Although the recommendations in the report were for the Dundee partnership, I can assure the member that I have engaged with both the commission and indeed the partnership. The Mat Standards implementation support team meets with Dundee on a regular basis and is providing clinical expertise as well as practical support to make the changes needed to embed the standards. A monitoring system is in place and ADPs have been supported in setting up a report and schedule for the progress towards implementing each of the Mat Standards. I can advise the chamber that NHS Tayside will be doing that on a monthly basis. I call Greg Hoy to be followed by Audran Nicol. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Doesn't the minister realise that we've spent the last 15 minutes listening to cans being kicked down the road? Does the minister share my concern with the number of deaths where cwcain is a contributing factor, up from 6 per cent in 2008 to nearly one in three last year? What more can the minister do to combat cwcain use, particularly among younger and middle-aged men, many of whom are disproportionately falling into a trap of a downward and dangerous spiral of regular cwcain use, which is damaging their health, leading to financial hardship and ultimately costing lives? The minister and I talked about that last year. How about no more action plans? How about no more working groups and action on the ground to tackle the problem of the damage that has been caused by cwcain use? I would dispute the allegation that we are kicking anything down the can. Action and progress is taking place right now in every community in Scotland supported by Scottish Government funding. We are not only investing in services, we are also reforming services. It is imperative that, for those of us in this chamber who at times accuse this Government of being over-controlled and essentialising and they try and champion local accountability, I also point the member to that this Government is taking on our responsibilities and we won't shy away from our commitments but we also want to have that transparent system where there is accountability at every tier of Government. I will do everything that I can to monitor but also support and scrutinise work that is going on the ground and to facilitate that to happen. In terms of the point about cwcain, we have to remember that cwcain use is often in the context of poly drug misuse. That does make treatment options more complex but we shouldn't forget that this is not just about medication-assisted treatment, particularly in terms of cwcain. It is about psychosocial interventions and we have to have parity and I can assure you that we do have parity in terms of this Government between medication-assisted treatment and those more psychosocial interventions. The national mission outlines the Scottish Government's commitment to increasing distribution and availability of naloxone. Indeed, I recently worked in partnership with alcohol and drugs action in Aberdeen to train my staff to administer naloxone. Further to the update provided in her statement, can the minister outline how the Scottish Government will ensure those working in our emergency services but also our prison population and staff have access to and training to administer naloxone given its efficacy in saving lives? I commend the action taken by Ms Nicol and her staff. The Scottish Drugs Forum provides free training on how we administer naloxone to members of the public or indeed to professionals. We fund the award-winning and innovative click and deliver service provided by Scottish families affected by alcohol and drugs. That is to improve access, make access more simple for individuals or indeed their families. We have invested to widen access within the Scottish Ambulance Service, police at Scottish Fire Rescue Service also in terms of a pilot. The very important peer naloxone programme that is taking place both within communities but also in prison settings is in recognition of the height and risk of overdose on release. Of course, there is more that we can do particularly to improve the supply of naloxone in prisons. We need to be followed by Collette Stevenson. I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement. The minister will be aware that my proposed drug death prevention Scotland consultation closed at night last night, and over 85 per cent of respondents to the consultation believe that any oversight body must be entirely independent of government in order to be effective. Sadly, that is not the case with this new national mission oversight group, which appears to be a continuation of the task force rather than anything else. Will the minister commit today to establishing an independent body, like my proposed drug death council, or are we just going to continue to keep doing the same over and over again as we have the last 15 years, whilst expecting different results? On the one hand, we have colleagues saying that there are too many groups and working groups and organisations, and then we have Mr Sweeney who is asking me to establish another group. Can I say about the national oversight group? It is not a replacement of the drugs death task force. The drugs death task force work is done and that work is complete. It is now for the Government to take forward and deliver that. Can I also say in terms of national oversight, other members, and I think it may have been Mr Alex Cole-Hamilton, had recommended that we tap into that international expertise and we do indeed have international as well as homegrown expertise on that national oversight group. Mr Strang, I am very pleased to say, has agreed to take on the independent chair of that. As well as the national oversight group, first and foremost, accountability is within this Parliament, and I, as a minister, welcome and would always advocate that the biggest and best body to hold the Government to account and scrutinise is indeed our Parliament. I call Collette Stevenson to be followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I welcome the commitments in the programme for Government to publish a cross-Government action plan and an anti-stigma plan as part of the national mission. Taking a whole person approach and doing everything we can to eliminate stigma essential alongside the Scottish Government's work to improve access to treatment. Can the minister provide more details on these plans and the benefits that they could bring? I know that Ms Stevenson is a great advocate and champion for people affected by drugs and that she is always fearless in tackling stigma. The stigma plan will indeed propose concrete actions. We need to do that meaningfully. We will roll out the stigma charter that was developed by the task force. There is also a key strand of our anti-stigma work that connects very closely with our work-in-work force, the national collaborative and indeed the work that we are doing to roll out MAT standards as well. Of course, the campaign to the national media campaign and Stop the Deaths campaign were important in that regard too. I call Alex Cole-Hamilton to be followed by Steven Millan. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I am very grateful to the minister for having acted on our calls to bring in international expertise in this way. It is vitally important. The report highlights that substance use is not limited to the user, but it also has the exact impact on the families around them, particularly children. On any given day in Scotland, there are as many as 25,000 children affected by parental substance use. I welcome the announcement of the Phoenix Futures Family Service in Abelara's child and mother's house. I worked with Abelara when they had an iteration of that service before, but it had to close due to myopic decision by Glasgow City Council who decided that it just wasn't being used enough. What guarantees can the minister give to the chamber about the longevity of those services? We are going to need them even when we think that we don't need them. Minister. I very much agree with Mr Cole-Hamilton that we need to be in this for the long term in that our services, particularly around supporting children and families and early intervention and prevention, isn't just for when things are challenging that we need to be committed to that in good times and bad. I can say in terms of the action that this Government has taken in terms of Abelara alone, that will be to the tune of £5 million. The other services that we are expanding for women and children I spoke about in my statement. Mr Cole-Hamilton will also be aware of the programme for government commitment around the whole family wellbeing fund. That is a substantial commitment of, again, Government resource. It is, of course, not just about the quantum of resource, it is also how that is used. We do indeed, and I am determined to have a very keen eye not just on the quantum of investment but also the impact of that investment in ensuring that it reaches where it needs to reach. I call Stuart McMillan to be followed by Maggie Chapman. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to remind the chamber that I am a board member of moving on to the local addiction service. The minister will be aware of the increasing and improving approach taking place in the number cloud between all agencies and the third sector organisations which I believe has led to the reduction in drug deaths from 33 to 16, but clearly there is still a lot more to do because it is still 16 people dying. One of the key challenges is that of mental health provision and helping people to deal with addiction. It is a point that has been raised with me consistently over a number of months, including last week, when I attended quite a number of events in the constituency on international overdose stage. Mr McMillan, can we please have a question? I have already indicated to the chamber that I want to get to all the members. I need co-operation for that. I need to think questions and I need to think answers. Please continue. Will the minister consider using Inverclyde as a pilot area for an enhanced mental health programme to help to deal with the addiction issues we face and which he agreed to meet with local organisations to discuss the situation? Minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I meet with the member and local organisations. The task force in this regard made a number of really important recommendations, which I fully support. People should not be turned away. They should not be left to navigate their way around fragmented services and treatment. For one health condition, it should not be dependent upon the other. Of course, that standards are indeed important in this regard and mental health and addiction services need to be joined up at the hip. I am on record saying that we need to be doing much more in that regard and the chamber will be aware of the work that Mr Stewart and I involved in the rapid review of mental health and addiction services and the investment on the ground to help better connect services and provide better holistic person-centre support to people and communities. Maggie Chapman followed by Brian Whittle. I thank the minister for his statement and reiterate that Scottish Greens believe that one drug death is one death too many. It is a public health issue and should be treated as such, not by applying punitive or criminal sanctions that we now do not work. Can the minister provide more detail about the timescales for the cross-government action plan and specifically what interaction those involved in developing and implementing it will have with the Lord Advocate, Police Scotland and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service? Of course, I cannot comment on the actions and decisions of the Crown Office or indeed the Lord Advocate, Ms Chapman and I come from the same place. As indeed does Mr Sweeney in terms of the comfort that is sought to be able to implement harm reduction measures that are proven to work and indeed work in other countries across the world. In terms of timescales between now and the remainder of this year and the turn of the year, I will be regularly returning back to Parliament in and around our anti-stigma action plan or workforce. I have commitments to Ms Baker in terms of updates in and around match standards and indeed we will come back to consult Parliament on the cross-government action plan and I'm also keen to discuss with members their views on the recent UK Government white paper which may apply or aspects of that may apply to Scotland and the consultation date for that closes 10 October, so I urge members to look at the letter that I have written to the UK Government and also to communicate any views on that matter. Brian Whittle to be followed by Stephanie Callaghan. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Scottish Government's approach quite rightly is to the treatment of those who caught an addiction, but to prevent those following behind adding to those appalling numbers it's my belief that to effectively tackle the issue we must understand why in Scotland strong figures are so bad compared to the rest of the UK and Europe. Can I therefore ask the Minister what work has been done to understand why Scotland is such an outlier in drug abuse? Minister. Presiding Officer, we have debated and discussed this matter about why Scotland I believe fairly extensively in chamber. The member will be aware of my views on this matter. It's around prevalence, it's around polysubstance misuse and benzodiazepines that we have not succeeded in getting enough of our people into the treatment and support they need. I would also say to the member, as a matter of fact, that while the situation in Scotland indeed is worse than anywhere else in Europe, that the situation across the UK is seen a rise in prevalence and a continued rise in drug deaths, but as well as looking at some of the initiatives that do happen in England that I would agree with that they fit with that public health approach, we also need to be setting our eyes further afield to be learning from the very best of international practice. We know what works. It is my view that we now, all of us, need to get on and do it. Thank you Minister. As I had anticipated, we have run out of time for this statement. There are two members, sadly, who I was not able to call, who I would have liked to have called and I am sure that if they wish to pursue the matters that they wish to raise, they will write to the minister. There will be a short pause before we move on to the next item of business.