Chamber and committees

Information is provided in the following table.

There is no centrally held information about the standard costs involved in managing sex offenders under MAPPA as by their very nature, the arrangements are highly tailored to individual requirements, risks and circumstances.

The statutory criteria that govern the imposition of Orders for Lifelong Restriction can be found in sections 210B to 210G of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. It is for the court to decide whether an offender may fit the criteria when deciding on an appropriate sentence following conviction. The court will be aided in this regard by a risk assessment order produced by an accredited risk management professional. We do not hold information relating to the number of offenders who could have potentially received an Order for Lifelong Restriction.

Information held by the Risk Management Authority shows that to date 89 Orders for Lifelong Restriction have been imposed since they were introduced. No offender receiving an Order for Lifelong Restriction has been released from prison with one offender dying while in custody and another successfully appealing the Orders for Lifelong Restriction sentence.

It does not. Schedule 4 (2) (1) of the Police Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006, which covers “limitations on appointment” to the role of Police Complaints Commissioner for Scotland, does not disqualify a member or former member of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority from taking on this role.

No. Limitations on appointment to the role of a Police Investigations and Review Commissioner are set out in Schedule 4 (2) (1) of the Police Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006 as amended by Schedule 7 (33) of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. Accordingly, members or former members of the Civil Nuclear Police Authority are not disqualified from taking on this role.

Prior to 2007-08, this information had not been collected. That is why the Scottish Government developed the Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database, introduced in April 2011. This reports on the number of people entering drug and alcohol treatment and the types of support they access, broken down by NHS board and Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP). From this, we know that during 2011-12, approximately 15,600 people entered drug treatment to support their recovery. This does not equal the number of rehabilitation (or drug treatment and support) places available.

The Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database also provides us with quarterly information on the length of time people are waiting for treatment and the treatments started. 19,043 drug treatments were started between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 and the types of treatment started included the following:

The above is reported nationally on a quarterly basis but is not routinely published on an individual NHS board basis.

This government recognised that the number of drug rehabilitation places made available each year has not been broken down by those made available by the Scottish Prison Service. Prison staff have now started reporting to Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland on waiting times data. The current level of data under-represents all the treatment and support provided in the prison. Officials are meeting with representatives of all prisons on 27 September to discuss how the data can be improved and to agree timescales for publishing this data.

Information on the number of hospital admissions, with a diagnosis of drug misuse since 1 April 1999, as reported by Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland is presented in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1 shows the number of psychiatric discharges with a diagnosis of drug misuse in Scotland between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2010 and Table 2 shows the number of general acute inpatient and day case discharges with a diagnosis of drug misuse in Scotland between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2011.

Table 1: Psychiatric Hospital Discharges¹ with a Diagnosis of Drug Misuse^2,3,4 as Main or Secondary Diagnosis^5,6; Years Ending 31 March 2000 to 2010⁷

Source: ISD / IR2012-01512.

Notes:

1. Information is based on date of discharge (rather than date of admission)

2. Excludes misuse of tobacco or alcohol.

3. Includes type of admission not known, and cases with a missing or invalid response.

4. Includes transfers from other psychiatric inpatient care.

5. Diseases recorded using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). ). Drug-related codes: F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F18, F19. Up to six diagnoses are recorded. All six diagnoses have been used to identify drug related conditions.

6. Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of drug misuse may vary from hospital to hospital. Where drug misuse is suspected but unconfirmed it may not be recorded by the hospital.

7. Information on psychiatric discharges for drug misuse in 2010-11 is not currently available for public release. Figures for this period will be published by NHS Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland in 2013.

8. Patients resident outside Scotland or whose NHS board or council area of residence is not known are included in this analysis. Therefore these figures will be between 3-5% greater than previously published figures.

Table 2: General Acute¹ Inpatient and Day Case Discharges^2,3 with a Diagnosis of Drug Misuse^4,5 as Main or Secondary Diagnosis; Years Ending 31 March 2000 to 2011

Source: ISD / IR2012-01512.

Notes:

1. Excludes mental illness hospitals, psychiatric units and maternity hospitals.

2. Information is based on date of discharge (rather than date of admission) because the SMR01 dataset is a discharge summary record.

3. Figures in Table 2 relate only to those individuals who are treated as inpatients or day cases in an acute hospital. They do not include individuals managed as outpatients.

4. Diseases recorded using the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). Drug-related codes: F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F18, F19. Up to six diagnoses are recorded. All six diagnoses have been used to identify drug related conditions.

5. Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of drug misuse may vary from hospital to hospital. Where drug misuse is suspected, but unconfirmed it may not be recorded by the hospital.

6. Patients resident outside Scotland or whose NHS board or council area of residence is not known are included in this analysis. Therefore, these figures will be between 1-2% higher than previously published figures by ISD.

The Review of Methadone in Drug Treatment: Prescribing Information and Practice published in 2007 (for the year 2006) estimated that 22,224 individuals were receiving methadone.

Prior to 2007-08, this information had not been routinely collected. To address this evidence gap, the Scottish Government has invested in three approaches:

(1) In 2011 and 2012 the Scottish Government Drugs Policy Unit asked every NHS Board in Scotland how many individuals were receiving opioid substitute treatment in the month of April. This provided an estimate of 24,994 individuals receiving methadone prescriptions in 2011 and 24,507 individuals receiving methadone prescriptions in 2012.

(2) The Scottish Government has invested in the enhancement of the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD) so that it includes the collection of follow-up data and outcomes-based information from people as they progress through their treatment pathway. The first release of this information will be published by Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland in December 2012.

(3) The Scottish Government developed the Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database, introduced April 2011. This provides us with quarterly information on the length of time people are waiting for treatment and the treatments started. Nineteen thousand and forty-three drug treatments started between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 and they were broken down as follows:

The Road to Recovery is a long-term strategy and is under continual review from both within and out with government.

In order to do this effectively and sustainably the Scottish Government established the Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission (DSDC) in 2009 to give expert advice on the impact and progress of the strategy.

In addition to the work of the DSDC, we recognise that the strategy is a product of political consensus and so it was right that the Scottish Government requested and led a parliamentary debate in September 2010 to hear the challenge and consensus of all political parties. Additionally briefing in parliament from the, then, Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing MSP, was offered to all MSPs, as well as individual briefings for all party leaders, in March 2011.

In 2009 we committed to a HEAT target that states by March 2013, 90% of clients will wait no longer than three weeks from referral received to appropriate drug or alcohol treatment that supports their recovery. We are well on our way to achieving this target, and in June 2012, Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland reported that between January to March 2012, 87% of people received treatment for drug use within three weeks of referral.

The Scottish Government has invested in the enhancement of the Scottish Drugs Misuse Database (SDMD) so that it includes the collection of follow-up and outcomes based information from clients as they progress through their treatment pathway.

The analysis and reporting of this information by ISD from December 2012 will, over time, provide us with some key answers to the numbers of people in drug treatment in Scotland (by treatment type); and provide an opportunity for additional analysis which will inform our understandings of people’s journeys through drug treatment (for particular cohort groups), the effectiveness of different types of treatment (including length of time) and the outcomes that individuals are achieving (e.g. around accommodation, family, employment/training, drug use and offending).

So far from the SDMD we note that since 2007 more and more people are coming in to treatment (39,458 recorded entries into treatment, 2007-08 to 2010-11).

Furthermore the Scottish Government developed the Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database, introduced in April 2011. This provides us with quarterly reports on the length of time people are waiting for treatment and the treatments they started. 19,043 drug treatments started between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 and these included the following:

The Scottish Government continues to work closely with the independent National Forum on Drug Related Deaths (NFDRD). In partnership with the forum we have established a database that offers information and context behind each drug-related death in Scotland (information that prior to 2007-08 was previously not routinely collected or analysed). This in turn offers challenge to the strategy and an opportunity to develop critical interventions, for example the National Naloxone programme.

The Scottish Government remains committed to providing the Parliament with regular updates on the implementation and impact of Road to Recovery for the review and challenge of MSPs. We want to continue to work with parties across the Parliament to build on and reinforce the consensus of this important approach.

The Scottish Drugs Strategy Delivery Commission produced its first year report and recommendations to Minister in October 2011 which can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2011/10/10142851/0.

The report contained 23 recommendations focused on three key areas, Children Affected by Parental Substance Misuse; Care, Treatment and Recovery, and Governance and Accountability of the Delivery System. The report and its recommendations were sent to the 14 NHS Boards in Scotland and 30 Alcohol and Drug Partnerships and key stakeholders.

The Scottish Government is working in collaboration with NHS Boards and Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to address all the recommendations in the report.