Chamber and committees

Thank you for your initial comments, Dr Priyadarshi. It is promising to hear that there has been an uptick in the patronage and use of the facility over the past six months or so.

I want to establish some of the trends that you mentioned around cocaine injection, because you said that 70 per cent of injection episodes were related to cocaine. Can you comment on the typical pattern of behaviour for cocaine injection, particularly the frequency of the episodes relative to heroin and how it presents? Is there a greater frequency of injecting as a result of cocaine use?

Minister, you mentioned that you needed to engage with ministers in other devolved Governments and the UK Government. Have you been able to have those conversations in recent weeks?

I am reflecting on opportunities to improve the service. A community syringe redemption programme has been launched in Boston and New York within the past five years. Has that been considered as an evolution of the service, particularly given the significant benefits that have been demonstrated from the small cash incentive to return syringes?

Minister, you heard the contributions from members of the previous panel. Will you outline the Government’s view, with awareness of the recent metrics, on how the overdose prevention pilot at the Thistle is performing after several months of operation?

Do you have any more comments on the Scottish Affairs Committee’s recommendations, given that it was referenced by the minister?

The needle exchange programme has operated in Glasgow since 1987. You said that the Thistle has removed around 5,000 injections from the street environment. Does the Thistle provide a dispensing element in the form of sterile injecting equipment? If so, how does that operate? Also, how does the Thistle operate in concert with the well-established needle exchange programme? How does that work, bearing in mind the restricted operating hours of the Thistle?

Has the minister heard some of the suggestions to enhance the service? There was a discussion in the previous evidence session about a change in the types and frequency of drug injection and the opening hours, and there is also the issue of inhalation, particularly with crack cocaine. I am aware that there is a paper at the integration joint board in Glasgow about an inhalation service. Is your office considering how you might be able to assist in expediting that?

It is interesting that the frequency of injections per person is increasing because of the change in behaviour. From the outset, one of my concerns has been the facility’s restricted operating hours. There has been commentary about drug-related debris in the wider community and, anecdotally, I have heard a suspicion that that could be related to increasing frequency of use rather than an overall increase in the number of people using drugs in the area. I have had recent correspondence from Matt Corden at the Drygate Brewing Company Ltd—the Ladywell is behind his business—who has described significant drug-related debris appearing overnight. What interaction is the service having with the council and other partners to monitor street injecting in the vicinity of the facility, particularly from 9 pm to 9 am, outside the facility’s operating hours, and what adjustments could be made to the service model as a result of that?

It is a pleasure to join you again in support of the petition. The unanimity that SPT has shown in progressing the Strathclyde regional bus strategy, with support from parliamentarians across the region, demonstrates the level of public will to see a bus franchise implemented across Strathclyde, particularly in the greater Glasgow urban core. However, as is identified by the petitioner, the regional transport authority faces constraints—particularly resource constraints—in implementing the franchise. SPT has estimated that it will cost £50 million to complete the complex processes that are set out in the act. Of course, if the act were simplified, as the petitioner has suggested, in line with the 2017 act covering the rest of the UK, the cost could be reduced. SPT has set aside £12 million in reserves to finance that work, but it estimates that, between 2028 and 2031, it will cost £100 million to £200 million to roll out bus franchising. Therefore, there are resource constraints that have not really been addressed, which might delay the implementation of the franchise.

The Government has identified the Clyde metro as a major investment priority in the context of the strategic transport projects review, and bus franchising will clearly underpin an effective Clyde metro. Therefore, there is a need to move bus franchising forward at pace, because the transport authority needs to get ahead, and the Government needs to be in synchronicity with the transport authority in the region to allow that. We cannot waste any more time. We have already had significant delays in getting bus franchising off the ground, relative to other major British cities.

My suggestion is that the committee consider bringing the Cabinet Secretary for Transport in, to inquire in detail about the resourcing of the franchising process and simplification of the legislation where appropriate, as well as—as my colleague Mr Harvie suggested—referring the petition to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, which I understand has some capacity to consider the matter in more detail before dissolution. There could be an opportunity for collaboration between this committee and the NZET Committee.

I draw the committee’s attention to the fact that, in June, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £15.6 billion investment in public transport for English city regions, with each receiving around £1 billion to £2.5 billion over the next five years to deliver or enhance bus franchising and to deliver new bus infrastructure. That will result in a Barnett consequential of approximately £1.3 billion, so the position is not as fatalistic as the committee might have assumed initially. There is a significant envelope of investment, and we are not aware of what the Government will do with it.

There could perhaps be an opportunity for the committee or the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee to drill down into exactly what the Government’s intentions are for that consequential, particularly in relation to Strathclyde’s well-advanced proposals for bus franchising to enable it to catch up with those other city regions. It might be prudent for the committee to hold the petition open until it at least receives a response from the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee about the way it intends to proceed.