Chamber and committees

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.

In the context of the factors that are stigmatising for people, as Katy Clark has described, does she agree that one of the most stigmatising is the current misuse of drugs legislation, which is now more than 50 years old and which has been shown to have failed over those 50 years? Indeed, it frequently pushes people back into a cycle of offending and, as she said, impacts the most vulnerable people in communities.

Yes.

We move on to questions on the national stigma action plan.

I am going to move swiftly on. We have seven or eight minutes left to cover questions on public health approaches in the justice system.