Chamber and committees

Becky Wood and Neil Richardson want to come in.

Do you know whether the report that you mentioned will be published and publicly available?

That is very helpful.

We would love to continue the discussion, but we have run over time. I give grateful thanks to all our witnesses. There was some powerful, insightful and helpful testimony and personal accounts. If any witnesses have anything outstanding that they would like to share with the committee, please do so in writing and the committee will take that evidence into account.

That brings the public part of our meeting to a close. We meet again on 3 November to continue taking evidence as part of the pre-budget scrutiny process, when we will hear from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Scottish Prison Service.

I will bring in Becky Wood—as briefly as possible, please—followed by Superintendent Conway.

Item 2 is the next in a short series of round-table discussions. We will look at the misuse of drugs and the criminal justice system, and I refer members to papers 1 to 3.

I welcome our panel of witnesses: Mr Anthony McGeehan, procurator fiscal, policy and engagement, from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service; Mr Peter Krykant, activist and campaigner; Natalie Logan MacLean, chief executive officer at Sustainable Interventions Supporting Change Outside; Superintendent Norman Conway from Police Scotland; Leeanne Hughes, Shine programme mentor, and Louise Stevenson, lived experience participant, Sacro; Neil Richardson OBE, vice-chair, and Becky Wood, lived/living experience representative, from the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce; and Mr David Liddell, chief executive officer at the Scottish Drugs Forum. We appreciate the time that you are taking to join us. Thank you for your written submissions, which are available online.

I intend to allow about two hours for the discussion. I ask members to please indicate which witness they are directing remarks to. We can then open the floor to other witnesses for comments. If other witnesses wish to respond, I ask them to indicate that to me or the clerks and I will bring them in if time permits. If a witness merely agrees with what another witness says, there is no need to intervene to say so. You can let us know that you want to speak by typing the letter R in the chat box. I ask members and our invited guests to keep questions and comments as succinct as possible, please.

I will open the discussion with a fairly general question for Peter Krykant, Louise Stevenson, Natalie Logan MacLean and then Becky Wood. To the extent that you want to share this with us, will you tell us about your experience and about how we deal with drugs misuse in the criminal justice system? How has that impacted on you? How accessible is support to give people a route to recovery from drug misuse and addiction?

Thank you, Natalie. A number of members would like to come in with questions.

I will bring in Fulton MacGregor, and then Louise Stevenson, who I know is keen to come in.

I will bring in Louise Stevenson, as she was keen to come in. Perhaps she would like to respond to that question, and then go back to the point that she wanted to make earlier.

I think that Becky Wood and Louise Stevenson are keen to come back in, but I would like to bring in Collette Stevenson so that all members have had an opportunity to ask questions.

Thank you, Peter. I am sure that we all extend our condolences on the death of your family member. I can only imagine that it is a really difficult time for you, so we appreciate your contribution.

I am aware of the time, so I will open up the issues that we have been exploring this morning to the other witnesses, who have been waiting patiently. Would any of you like to comment on some of the issues that have been raised so far? Mr Liddell, you have indicated that you would like to comment.