Chamber and committees

I will come back to you. A lot of members have questions.

I bring in Katy Clark, after whom we will move on to questions about statistics, for which I will bring in Natalie Don.

Good morning, and welcome to the third joint meeting in 2022 of the Criminal Justice Committee, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and the Social Justice and Social Security Committee to consider the progress that is being made in implementing the recommendations of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce.

We have received no apologies. I welcome Alex Cole-Hamilton to the meeting. Foysol Choudhury should be joining us online shortly.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking in private item 3, which is consideration of our forward work programme. Do we agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I will bring in Gillian Mackay, who has some questions about safe consumption rooms, then I will bring Paul O’Kane back in.

Our next item is our third evidence session on reducing drug deaths in Scotland and tackling problem drug use. I refer members to papers 1 and 2.

I welcome to the meeting Angela Constance, Minister for Drugs Policy, and her Scottish Government officials: Orlando Heijmer-Mason, deputy director for drugs policy; and Roz Currie, team leader with the Drug Deaths Taskforce response. Thank you very much indeed, minister and colleagues, for joining us—and for forgoing your opportunity to make some opening remarks, minister. We will therefore move straight to questions.

I will jump straight in, if I may. First, thank you for keeping the committees informed about the development of the national mission plan and the oversight group, and for keeping the Parliament updated on a range of developments relating to drug deaths, the medication-assisted treatment standards, substance misuse and the justice system, and other areas of on-going work.

I will open up the evidence session with a couple of questions on alcohol and drug partnerships. The “Changing Lives” report sets out some of the challenges experienced by specific populations, including women and young people. I was disturbed to understand the correlation between deaths of

“women with substance use problems that occur in the perinatal period”

and

“child protection proceedings or having their child taken into care.”

On young people, the report says:

“Drug-related deaths among young people (under 25 years) have risen sharply in recent years.”

Related to that particular issue, action 30 outlines how

“ADPs and services must ensure specific pathways are developed to ensure young people can access the support they need when they need it.”

As a former member of the Aberdeen City ADP, I would be interested to hear any update that you can provide on action 29, relating to pathways for women, and action 30, relating to young people. Specifically, I would like to know about the progress being made by ADPs in developing local pathways to services and support, given their crucial role in ultimately reducing drug harm and drug death numbers.

Thank you very much, minister. I will not ask questions on it just now, but that relates to how important lived and living experience will be in informing specific areas of work. Other members will touch on that later.

I open up the meeting to questions from members, starting with Alex Cole-Hamilton.

I call Natalie Don, after whom I will bring in Paul O’Kane.

Sue Webber has a follow-up question, then I will bring in Alex Cole-Hamilton.

I will bring Sue Webber back in to pick up some questions around early intervention, and then we will move on.

I ask for a succinct answer. We still have a number of questions and about 15 minutes left.

Time is against us, so I have to bring our meeting to a close. I know that members will have some questions outstanding, so we will write to the minister with follow-up points, if members would like.

I say a big thank you, minister, for what has been a really interesting and helpful session. I thank your officials, as well. I close the public part of our meeting.