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Thank you for that. It was really helpful.

I will bring in Pauline McNeill in a second, but before I do so, I want to come back to Craig Sayers and his opening remarks about the TOM, the monitoring of it and delivery against it. In the quite significant evidence that we have received from the Scottish Recovery Consortium, it comments on alcohol harm as well as drug harm and makes a recommendation in relation to

“Alcohol Use and Treatment Gaps”,

saying:

“The recommendation for a rapid review of alcohol services”—

which it also refers to in its evidence—

“is particularly relevant given the high prevalence of alcohol-related harm in prison populations. The Committee’s inquiry into substance misuse should consider alcohol alongside illicit drugs when assessing treatment capacity and service design.”

Is there any response that you would care to make to that, just in the context of what is already happening?

Thank you. Do you want to come back in, Rona?

I want to ask a little bit about your views on the Prison Service’s alcohol and drugs strategy, which I do not think that we have covered yet—I might have missed it. Before I do so, though, I note that, in one of her previous responses, Lesley Graham raised the question of what more can be done and, perhaps, who should be involved. I do not want to go off on a completely different tangent, but I am interested in whether the industry has a role here, given the context within which you have been discussing alcohol harm issues.

It would be interesting to have a little more detail about that and to see the breakdown. That would be welcome—thank you.

That is an interesting point.

We are coming up to time. Before I invite the witnesses to make any final comments on anything that we have not covered, Sharon Dowey has a question.

I bring this evidence-taking session to a close. I thank the witnesses for attending. We have picked up a lot of very helpful details.

Next week, we will continue to take evidence as part of the inquiry and we will focus on prevention and enforcement.

We move on to our second panel of the morning. I am pleased to welcome Dr Craig Sayers, clinical lead for prison healthcare at NHS Forth Valley and for the national prison care network; Dr Lesley Graham, a retired public health doctor and founding member of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems; and Dr Catriona Connell from the University of Stirling. Welcome to you all, and thank you very much for your attendance. Thank you also to those witnesses who have provided written submissions.

We are looking to spend around 80 minutes on this evidence session. I will get things going with my usual opening question. I will perhaps come to Dr Sayers first, and I will then move across to Dr Graham and Dr Connell.

We have heard a lot of evidence throughout this inquiry, and we are keenly aware that the primary focus of our evidence has been on the use of drugs in prisons. It has been less to do with the use of alcohol or some other complex issues around co-dependency, the use of alcohol and its impact, particularly in the justice system. Could you perhaps set the scene by setting out whether illicit alcohol in prisons is indeed an issue in Scotland? Is there adequate and consistent screening, and is there early identification of alcohol use disorders at admission? What support and service provision is available in prisons and, more broadly, in the community?

That is quite a big question. I will bring in Dr Sayers first to kick things off.

We move on to our second panel of the morning. I am pleased to welcome Dr Craig Sayers, clinical lead for prison healthcare at NHS Forth Valley and for the national prison care network; Dr Lesley Graham, a retired public health doctor and founding member of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems; and Dr Catriona Connell from the University of Stirling. Welcome to you all, and thank you very much for your attendance. Thank you also to those witnesses who have provided written submissions.

We are looking to spend around 80 minutes on this evidence session. I will get things going with my usual opening question. I will perhaps come to Dr Sayers first, and I will then move across to Dr Graham and Dr Connell.

We have heard a lot of evidence throughout this inquiry, and we are keenly aware that the primary focus of our evidence has been on the use of drugs in prisons. It has been less to do with the use of alcohol or some other complex issues around co-dependency, the use of alcohol and its impact, particularly in the justice system. Could you perhaps set the scene by setting out whether illicit alcohol in prisons is indeed an issue in Scotland? Is there adequate and consistent screening, and is there early identification of alcohol use disorders at admission? What support and service provision is available in prisons and, more broadly, in the community?

That is quite a big question. I will bring in Dr Sayers first to kick things off.

I will have to bring the session to a close. I thank Pam Gosal and colleagues for coming along today. We will have a short suspension to change over witnesses.

10:44 On resuming—  

I will have to bring the session to a close. I thank Pam Gosal and colleagues for coming along today. We will have a short suspension to change over witnesses.