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I thank everyone who has spoken. I know that we do not have a huge amount of time left.

A number of times, people have mentioned the legislative framework that operates in the UK and, specifically, in Scotland, given that we have two very separate legal systems. I have a question for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. The number of charges for the offence of possession has roughly stayed the same over the past five years—the statistics show a marginal increase from 9,700 to 10,000. However, five years ago, the number of diversions was very low—there were about 88—and there has clearly been a big shift in policy towards diversion, because last year there were more than 1,000.

Given that there has been a dramatic increase in diversions but the sad roll call of drug fatalities has also increased year on year, can we draw any conclusions about the success of the diversion concept in reducing overall harm and death from drugs in Scotland? Is there a correlation to be made there? In other words, has the policy been a success?

Thank you for that illustration. We all welcome any positive outcomes from such interventions.

Is there a role for the Crown Office to play in analysing what happens next? We often focus on the discussion about diversion but not necessarily on what we are diverting people to and the success of those programmes. Do we know how many of the 500 people who went through a diversion from prosecution in 2019-20 had a successful outcome? Do we know what percentage of them attended rehabilitation? Do we know how many of them reoffended or were back in the system and were included in the figure of 1,000 the following year? What sort of analysis does the Crown Office do on the continued monitoring of people who are diverted from prosecution?

My final question relates to a point that Peter Krykant raised. Not everyone who is stopped by police and who is involved in a single-charge possession case or commits a first-time possession offence would necessarily be classed as someone with an addiction. They might be recreational drug users and might not be suitable for the sort of diversion programmes that other witnesses have referred to.

What is the advice to police in that respect? How does the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service differentiate and decide or analyse whether someone who is stopped and charged with possession would benefit from full treatment, diversion and rehabilitation or is simply a recreational drug user who is breaking the law? There might be a fine line between the two.

I wonder whether Police Scotland would like to answer the same question.

Yes, of course.

Thanks, Peter. The place of organised crime in all this will come up later, as will the issue of people accessing drugs for the first time while they are in young offenders or adult detention institutions.

I thank our first speakers for sharing their personal experiences. I know that it is often difficult to speak about such things in public, but we value hearing about them.

A common theme seems to come through the answers. There always seems to be a trigger, if you like, such as when you were trying drugs for the first time or you might have been coerced or felt pressurised by your peer network in some way. What intervention do you think could have been made at that time so that the first time did not lead to the second, third or fourth, and the addiction that it created thereafter? What could have been done at that point to prevent that spiral from starting in the first place?

That question is open to anyone; you can just wave your hand if you want to answer.

I will try to make my question clearer. There has been a year-on-year increase in the number of diversions from prosecution—there are arguments for and against the approach, but that is not the point of my question. There has also been a year-on-year increase in the number of people who, sadly, have died as a result of drug use. The number of diversions doubled from 500 to 1,000 in one year alone, which is a substantial increase. Is it too early to say whether the policy is working, from a public health point of view, or do we have sufficient data to make a correlation between the policy and the health outcomes?

What savings are required to maintain the financial balance that you talk about in your submission?

We are running out of time, so I will be brief. Do you see your organisation’s role as facilitating the administration of public money that goes to the legal profession, or are you more consumer facing? Many thousands of people are going to Citizens Advice Scotland, and we know that many of its services are being cut or have been lost recently. Is that a warning that people will no longer have an idea about where to go to seek advice and help? Could you play a better role by being more consumer focused, so that people would know who you are and where to go for direct advice from the body that administers the finance, rather than going to the third sector?