Chamber and committees

All 10 should absolutely be implemented and operational by 2025 and they must be sustained by the end of this session of Parliament. We must find a way forward so that, beyond this session of Parliament and this Government, the MAT standards are treated as business as usual and will be what people can expect.

I have spoken with officials about the decision to split the standards into two groups after the first year, which predated my time as minister. The decision might have been about what was easier to measure: the first five standards were measures that officials within Government, and locally, thought could more easily be benchmarked.

We must not underestimate the work that the MAT standards implementation support team, which is based within public health, is doing at the moment. Members of the team have created entire data capture systems that did not exist beforehand. There is a massive amount of work to do in capturing experiential data, which is more difficult to quantify. That is why, if you look at the MAT standards, you will see that some are only provisionally marked as green because the experiential data, which will be led by people with lived experience, is being captured. Services say what they are doing, but the data will show how people are experiencing that service. It was quite tricky to set up the collection of that data, so we must recognise the sheer amount of work that has been undertaken.

Might I add to that?

Like you, I am very passionate about being trauma informed and ensuring that services are trauma responsive.

We need a full systems and cultural change if we are truly going to tackle stigma. Part of the Government’s response to the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce’s report was to launch a tackling stigma action plan. However, while we are in the process of rolling that out, we need to co-design what it looks like. Therefore, we are making sure that we work with our partners in the third sector, local government and the health and social care partnerships but also with the people who are experiencing the services. It is important for those people to be supported, by and large, by the third sector.

It will take a little time for us to co-design what the stigma action plan will look like, because co-design is not simple or easy. To do it effectively, we need to take a bit of time to ensure that we really hear from the voices of lived and living experience. With regard to our processes just now, I think that, sometimes—as you probably heard from witnesses last week—we can design stigma into our services by accident. We need to make sure that we hear what people who are living through substance use are telling us.

We also need to ensure that we think about some of the groups that are often not thought of when it comes to the designing of services. I am thinking about people from black and minority ethnic groups, who face substance use issues in the same way as everybody else, and I am thinking about services that we need to ensure are there for women and their specific needs. All too often, stigma can drive people away from services, so I am keen that we hear from all those voices. A lot of the time, the voices that we talk about as unheard are actually talking very loudly and we are just not listening to them. Therefore, for me, the co-design process is vital in getting that right, and it is going to take a wee bit of time.

I will also keep the committee informed about what can be learned from that case once I get a fuller picture back.

I do not know. I do not have any insight into that at the moment. Michael Crook might.

We know that Police Scotland has created an operational procedure that will dictate how any such facility is policed, and it is for Police Scotland to communicate that.

You are absolutely 100 per cent right, Ms Clark, to ask about how the staff of such a facility would be protected. It is for Susanne Millar to reassure us about the advice that Glasgow has taken on that. As the minister, I believe that the individuals who will be supporting some of our most vulnerable citizens should themselves be protected. I will hand over to Susanne to answer that.

It was just to say that the Lord Advocate will not proceed with her prosecution statement unless she has satisfied herself about the process.

I will just briefly say in response to that that I would ask members of the joint committee to reach out to Police Scotland, put questions to it, and perhaps take its evidence, because I think that that will help you to form the bigger picture. Police Scotland has been supportive in understanding the need for such a facility. Assistant Chief Constable Ritchie was behind the proposal from the beginning. Police Scotland has come on a journey as regards playing a role on the issue. It was probably an oversight that none of its representatives was available at the community council meetings. I do not think that either of us can speak for Police Scotland, except to say that, since 2016, it has certainly supported our endeavours.

Thank you, convener. I thank all three committees for coming together to focus on this issue, which cuts across all your portfolios.

We are now at the midpoint of the national mission and we have seen significant progress in many areas. There has been a huge increase in naloxone distribution, improvement in our surveillance and early warning systems, progress on the implementation of medication assisted treatment standards and an increase in residential rehabilitation referrals and capacity.

As a Government, we have taken a truly whole-systems approach to tackling drug deaths and the underlying drivers. Our response to the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce set out bold actions, including in mental health and oral health, community pharmacies and developing a concessionary travel pilot. We recently published our second annual report, which I hope members have had a chance to read to see the depth and range of work that is being delivered.

That progress is not just due to our increased investment. It is very much due to a huge, concerted effort by people and organisations right across the country, and my respect and thanks go out to them. This truly is a national mission.

In 2022, we saw the first annual reduction in drug deaths since 2017. Although I welcome that record fall, I reaffirm my commitment to continuing the national mission and recognise that we still have a lot of work to do. I will never underestimate the scale of the challenge that we continue to face, which includes responding to new threats such as synthetic opioids and the ever-increasing use of stimulants. We will continue to implement evidence-based policies to reduce deaths and to improve the lives of people affected by substance use, and we are continuing with our commitment to put people with lived and living experience at the heart of everything that we do.

We recently had a debate in the chamber that was focused on drug law reform. That debate highlighted the limitations and the barriers that we still face. A key facet of drug law reform is the ability for Scotland to implement actions that we know will save lives. One example is safer drug consumption facilities, and I again welcome the position from the Lord Advocate and the confirmation from the United Kingdom Government that it will not seek to block or prevent the proposals in Glasgow.

Safer drug consumption facilities are important, but they are only one small part of a much wider picture when it comes to supporting people wherever they are. I look forward to the opportunity to provide wider updates through this evidence session.

Thank you very much for your question. I echo your recognition of the work that this joint committee does. I think that joint committees are invaluable, and that we should be doing more where we can.

On drug checking, a two-year study was funded by the Drug Deaths Taskforce to look at what Scotland’s drug-checking facilities look like and what we need. One of the things that the study told us was that we need them to be situated in some of our bigger cities. Aberdeen city is obviously one such area. The study also told us that, on top of Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen, there is a need for a national hub. Hopefully, that will be sited within the University of Dundee. We recognise that, although we need to have the drug-checking facilities in communities within easy access of individuals, we also need to have a national facility that will allow for robust checking of the results that are found at local level. Perhaps, at one point, we will be able to move to the model that exists in Wales—the Welsh Emerging Drugs and Identification of Novel Substances, or WEDINOS, service—through which people can post in drugs to be checked.

When it comes to timescales, we have had some clarification from the Home Office regarding some of the information that will need to be supplied and submitted by local authorities with their applications. One of the issues that we are trying to work through concerns the legalities surrounding the transportation of substances. I think that, once we get into a position where that is nailed down, the applications will go in as quickly as we need them to go in.