- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 4 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Lord Advocate’s statement on 22 September 2021, whether Police Scotland can currently issue recorded police warnings for simple possession offences involving Class A drugs, and, if so, how many (a) such warnings have been issued and (b) people have been referred to drug treatment services in these cases.
Answer
As per the Lord Advocate’s Statement to the Scottish Parliament on 22 September 2021, the scope of the recorded police warning scheme has been extended to include possession only offences of Class A drugs. The Scottish Government does not hold information on the number of recorded police warnings issued, nor the number of people that have been referred to drug treatment services in these cases. This information is held by Police Scotland.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) have died and (b) were admitted to hospital in connection with the consumption of synthetic opioids in 2020, broken down by (i) the specific substance and (ii) NHS board.
Answer
National Records of Scotland produce an annual National Statistics publication each year on drug-related deaths in Scotland. The most recent report provides information on drug-related deaths details in 2020 and earlier years. Section 7 of the report provides an overview of drug-related deaths by substances implicated. Tables SUB1 and SUB2 provide information on the substances which were reported for drug-related deaths in Scotland between 2000 and 2020. Tables HBX and CX provide figures for individual drugs, for NHS Boards and councils. Annex E and Table NPS1 provide information relating to New Psychoactive Substances.
The full report and supplementary tables can be accessed from the following link: Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2020 | National Records of Scotland (nrscotland.gov.uk)
Hospital admissions
Public Health Scotland information on hospital activity relating to illicit drug use in Scotland are not specific enough to identify the substances specified (heroin and methadone are the only opioids with specific ICD-10 diagnostic codes).
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the National Patient Safety Alert issued by Public Health England, Potent synthetic opioids implicated in increase in drug overdoses, which was issued on 18 August 2021, whether it has been notified of any instances of (a) isotonitazene and (b) other synthetic opioids having been detected in the illegal drugs market in Scotland, and, if so, (i) when and (ii) where each instance occurred.
Answer
The emergence of new drugs is regularly monitored by Public Health Scotland and, following the alert from Public Health England in 2021, work is underway to incorporate screening for isotonitazene into toxicology procedures for both drug-related deaths and police seizures in Scotland.
In relation to detection of substances, unfortunately we do not hold information broken down to the level of detail requested. Scottish Government publish statistics on the number of drug possession and supply crimes and the quantities seized. These statistics relate to drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The full report can be accessed via this link:
Drug seizures and Offender Characteristics, 2018-2019 and 2019-20 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The Psychoactive Substance Act 2016 made it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, possess on custodial premises, import or export psychoactive substances. The number of crimes of production, supply or possession in custody of a psychoactive substance was 2 in 2018-19, 10 in 2019-20 and 8 in 2020-21 (source: annex of the above noted report).
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the Minister for Drugs Policy on 17 June 2021 about Public Health Scotland’s ongoing surveillance work (Official Report, c.57), how many people (a) have died and (b) were admitted to hospital in connection with the consumption of (i) isotonitazene and (ii) other synthetic opioids in 2021, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Unfortunately, we do not hold the information requested.
National Records of Scotland produce an annual National Statistics publication each year on drug-related deaths in Scotland. The most recent year for which this drug death information is available is 2020. The next report, covering drug-related deaths during 2021, is due to be published in summer 2022.
Public Health Scotland information on hospital activity relating to illicit drug use in Scotland does not identify the substances specified - heroin and methadone are the only opioids with specific ICD-10 diagnostic codes (ICD-10 refers to ‘International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision, the international standard diagnostic classification for all general epidemiological, health management purposes and clinical use).
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the public health surveillance system, referenced in the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce’s Interim Report, will be fully operational, and what information the system will collate.
Answer
The public health surveillance system for drug harms will be fully operational by 31 March 2022 and led by Public Health Scotland. An early warning system is in development and structures are in place to ensure evidence based approaches to reducing drug harms are implemented.
The system collates and analyses a range of information relating to drug harms made available through organisations such as Police Scotland, Health Boards Scottish Prison Services, Local Authorities, the third sector and people with lived and living experience.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not established a drug checking service, such as WEDINOS, which was launched by NHS Wales in 2013, and whether it has any plans to establish a similar service in the future.
Answer
The Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce has funded a project through Stirling University to research and develop the key components required to implement Drug Checking facilities in three areas in Scotland (Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen). Research began in January 2021 and will conclude with an evaluation report in January 2023. The project will also include a parallel programme of implementation.
The project team has committed to submitting applications to the Home Office in early 2022. Assuming support from the Home Office is forthcoming, we expect services to be established in Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow in 2022.
We have highlighted our desire to introduce these facilities to the Home Office as any activity which involves the possession of controlled drugs would require a Home Office licence. Kit Malthouse, the UK Government Minister for Policing, has indicated that he is open to discussing this with the Scottish Government and conversations have taken place between Scottish and UK officials to progress this.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether the early warning system, referenced in the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce’s Interim Report, is on track to be developed and rolled out by 31 March 2022, and whether it will detail how the system will operate.
Answer
The early warning system, referenced in the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce’s Interim Report, is on track to be developed and rolled out by 31 March 2022.
Public Health Scotland is leading the development and will operate this system by working closely with Health Boards to monitor information on drug harms. The early warning system will review evidence of trends or clusters of drug harms or deaths and support early, targeted and intelligence-led action in response. When concerns about clusters or trends in drug harms are identified, a risk assessment will be completed to guide actions and communicate risks where appropriate.
An advisory group will be in place to ensure actions are taken at a local and national level to reduce further harms.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 11 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the Minister for Drugs Policy on 17 June 2021 about more regular reporting of drug-related deaths by the National Records of Scotland (Official Report, c.57), when the first such report will be published, and how many reports will be published in each year.
Answer
From September 2021 we have introduced quarterly reporting of suspected drug-related deaths, providing far more timely data on the DRD crisis/situation for the first time. This report uses management information from Police Scotland on suspected drug deaths. The second publication of these suspected figures was in December 2021 and covered the period from July to September 2021 ( Suspected drug deaths in Scotland: July to September 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ). The next report will be published in March 2022 and will cover suspected deaths up to the end of December 2021.
We continue to work with Police Scotland, Public Health Scotland and National Records of Scotland to review the surveillance data we have, review quality and determine whether additional information could be published in the future.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many of the drug-related deaths that were included in the National Records for Scotland (NRS) Homeless Deaths reports for 2017-2020, were also included in the drug-related deaths figures that were published by the NRS in each year between 2017 and 2020.
Answer
The Homeless Death report used classifications (known as ICD-10) for cause of death and the established National Records of Scotland definition of a drug-related death (see Drug-related Deaths in Scotland in 2020 ). Therefore, all drug-related deaths reported within the NRS Homeless Death Report will also be included in the National Records of Scotland drug-related death report.
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 December 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made on its commitment to increase the number of employee-owned businesses in Scotland to 500 by 2030.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 22 December 2021
