Chamber and committees

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Scottish Prison Service conducts Mandatory Drug Tests (MDTs) via urine testing, for two primary reasons, progression as part of the risk assessment process, and when an individual is suspected of taking an illicit substance, through suspicion testing.

MDT urine testing can only detect certain substances, and many new synthetic substances such as Psychoactive Substances (PS) are undetectable via this testing method.

The application of The Management of an Offender at Risk (MORS) policy, is applied when an individual is suspected to be under the influence of or have an unknown substance secreted on their person. This policy is in place to care and support individual’s during this time and is not used or considered as a positive test.

Most MDTs carried out in HMP Barlinnie since 2022 were conducted for progression reasons:

Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership will assess the impact of the opening of the Safer Drug Consumption Facility on the community in which it is operating. This will be led by Public Health Scotland academics.

Significant time has been invested in engaging with the local community through drop in sessions. Feedback from these events has informed implementation planning, the formation of a Community Engagement Forum (that will address community concerns after the service is operational) and work with other relevant partners.

The independent evaluation team has also begun to gather community information on the impact of injecting drug use in the area. This will be monitored as the services becomes operational to assess the impact of the service on these issues.

The Design Team is the group of people with lived or living experience of drug harm that has been recruited by Deciding Matters, the small company charged with developing the nature and direction of the Stigma Plan (which was a recommendation of the Drug Death Task Force, rec. 22).

The call for expressions of interest asked for “ 20-24 people broadly representative of Scotland (age, gender, sex, race, disability with lived or living experience of substance use including family or friends of people with lived or living experience) who would like to inform how Scotland tackles stigma related to drugs and alcohol. Participants must be aged 18+” The existing group reflects that and were chosen through a recruitment process run by Deciding Matters.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS has invested in technology to support and enhance an existing range of security measures and remains vigilant to the continuously evolving nature of drug use to ensure that these tactical measures remain current and capable of detecting and preventing drugs from entering our prisons.

Despite these measures, individuals do still attempt to introduce contraband into prisons using methods such as drone activity, secretion on a person, impregnation onto and within articles and perimeter wall throws.

SPS recognise the profound impact that illicit articles entering prisons have and acknowledges the continued need to support those in our care who misuse substances as well as those on their recovery journey.

SPS will continue to work with partners to prevent the introduction of contraband and seek convictions where appropriate.

The Scottish Government does not hold information to enable it to estimate the annual monetary value of the drugs trade in Glasgow.

The Scottish Government welcomes the significant seizure of illicit drugs and the continuing activity by Police Scotland and other partners on the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce to remove illicit drugs from our communities and reduce the harm they cause.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS does not record this information.

The Scottish Government national working group set up to improve family support and inclusive family practices across drug and alcohol services, includes members from the following organisations:

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA)

Aberlour

Care Inspectorate

The Corra foundation

Quarriers

Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs

Circle

COSLA

The Beacons – My Support Day

Alcohol and Drug Partnerships

The Scottish Government is keen to ensure that local areas provide support at all times and that they assess the needs of people in their areas and work with them to design and deliver services in a way that meets the needs of people impacted by drugs and alcohol, including services being easily assessable and available at weekends.

As well as local contacts, we support national phone lines that are available for anyone to call. Know the Score operate a phoneline which is open until 9pm during the week and then open 10am until 4pm on weekends. This provides free, confidential support for people experiencing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health.

For families, Scottish Families operate a phoneline which is open until 11pm on weekdays and operates a call back service on weekends. This provides support for anyone concerned about someone else’s drug use with information, advice and linking to local support.

Through our National Mission we are providing an additional £250 million of investment over the course of this parliament to support reduce deaths and improve lives.

In 2023-24, there was a monthly average caseload of 134 young people supported by the service, this included 1818 hours of one-to-one sessions, 1,234 group services, 241 hours in professional meetings with housing, education and teaching. This information can be found in the Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol 2023-24 impact statement; Impact Reports - SFAD

Scottish Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol have an active caseload of 152 young people in East and West Dunbartonshire. They have supported a total of 187 young people.

Each of the six Grow Your Own Routes partnership services has between 27 and 77 young people on their current caseload. The total number of young people being supported by the Grow Your Own Routes partners is 296.

The total number of young people who have ever been supported by Routes across Scotland is 483.

Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs supports young people through the Routes programme in East and West Dunbartonshire. Through Scottish Government funding, Routes has expanded to ‘Grow Your Own Routes’ partnership services at Barnardos in North Lanarkshire, Action for Children in Renfrewshire, Aberlour in Falkirk, Right There in Orkney, ADA in Aberdeenshire and Circle in East Lothian.

Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs are also funding some small Grow Your Own Routes grants of £5K to other areas who want to trial Routes. This has included £5K to South Lanarkshire (My Support Day) and Helensburgh and Lomond (Young Carers).