Chamber and committees

I am happy to do so. it is preposterous to allege that anybody in this chamber does not think that drug dealing presents serious harm to people. Surely we can have more elevated debate than that on such serious issues.

Will the member take an intervention?

I mentioned the £50 million that was made available last year and the £53 million that was made available this year. That included setting up 16 additional solemn and summary courts from September. We have also established the justice recovery fund of £53.2 million for the next financial year. That is being provided to help to recover, renew and transform activity across the justice system as we emerge from the pandemic.

I will correct a point that was made previously. Of course there are delays that the courts service has told us could take up to 2026 to resolve, but that does not mean that cases that are currently being called will wait till that time. It means that the pandemic has an effect that will continue through to 2025 and, in some cases, 2026. It is only a shame that the UK Government did not recognise that in the grant settlement.

There will be different elements in answering that question. On whether we should have targets, it is not for me to tell Parliament how it should hold the Government to account, but the justice vision has a one-year delivery period that has been put forward just now, which includes lots of existing performance measurements—if not targets—and other interventions. We are also working on a three-year delivery target or delivery programme. When that is published, members might wish to quiz the Government on it—I am sure that they will.

On Katy Clark’s other point, I have already mentioned that Angela Constance will cover some of the things that we can do in society to try and reduce dependency, alcoholism and drug abuse. Within the justice system, we have to do more, whether that is in prisons or in how we deal with people with those issues in police custody suites, for example. We are doing a number of those things, not least in relation to a conversation that we had today with police and health professionals on how we use the navigator system and one or two innovative approaches, such as that being taken in Fraserburgh. I am happy to provide more information on that if the member wishes. Those approaches include how we best use monitoring and support to improve outcomes. There are potential developments in relation to alcohol and substance monitoring, and I am committed to looking at options focusing on what works. In doing that, I am open to working with members from across the chamber—as, I am sure, is Angela Constance—and we welcome the engagement that we have had to date.

As part of our efforts to encourage greater use of community interventions, our programme for government makes it clear that we are committed to expanding community justice services and to supporting diversion from prosecution, alternatives to remand—that comes back to the member’s question—and community sentencing.

In 2022-23, we increased annual funding by £15 million to £134 million to reflect continued investment in supporting pandemic recovery work and the expansion and transformation of community justice services. Combining that with investment in the national drugs mission, we are enabling timely and effective interventions in communities to prevent harm and to improve life chances. Our measures will also support the delivery of the revised national community justice strategy, which is currently under development. The strategy will set out clear aims for partners, with an emphasis on early intervention, and it will encourage a further shift away from the use of custody.

Our approach is evidence informed, and it is important that we assess the impact of existing measures such as drug treatment and testing orders. DTTOs are an intensive disposal that is specifically targeted at individuals with entrenched problem drug use, chaotic lifestyles and a history of offending. They were introduced to combine justice and health approaches in a targeted way, and we know that individuals on DTTOs can have difficulty in fully complying with the requirements. I therefore welcome the Drug Deaths Taskforce’s consideration of DTTOs. We intend to carry out some initial exploratory work reviewing the evidence available in relation to the orders and how they align with what is known about good practice in this area.

It is imperative that access to appropriate support is available to everyone who is serving a custodial sentence in Scotland. The Scottish Prison Service is working tirelessly to eradicate unauthorised drugs in prison, and it is continuously adapting its security measures to prevent, detect and deter the introduction of contraband. In November 2021, we laid legislation that allows prison officers to photocopy correspondence as another means to prevent the entry of illicit substances into prison and to reduce the availability of those substances to prisoners. That can only help to reduce the risks that illicit substances present to those living and working in our prisons.

Another key priority in prisons is mitigating against the known elevated risk of drug deaths at transition points such as release from custody, as well as ensuring naloxone provision and continuity of care on release. Prison officers and Department for Work and Pensions staff continue to offer assistance to prisoners to plan for their release, and the Scottish Government continues to support the work of throughcare services that support individuals to reintegrate back into their community after their release. That includes the excellent work that is done by Scotland’s third sector and justice social work services across the country.

The examples that I have touched on are making a real difference and will continue to do so. They are, however, just some of the steps that we have taken so far and which need to be taken. We know that this is a complex issue; it is not easy and it will require further action, further investment and a collective will to address the challenges ahead.

Although the approach that we are taking is not an easy one, we are absolutely clear that it is the right one to deliver lasting improvements. It is based on evidence of what works and is focused on actions that are effective in tackling drug-related deaths and harm and, ultimately, actions that make our communities safer.

The Scottish Government will continue to take this forward at pace and we welcome the opportunity to work with everyone across the chamber in doing so.

I move,

That the Parliament believes that every drug-related death is unacceptable and that drugs deaths are a public health emergency; commits to save and improve lives through the National Mission and supports the implementation of the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) standards; agrees with the Scottish Government’s long-term aim that imprisonment should be reserved for individuals who pose a risk of serious harm; determines that access to high-quality drug treatment, rehabilitation and recovery services at appropriate points in the justice system, including in prison and police care, is vital; recognises the stigma associated with services and service users and the need to tackle this; supports the transformation of community justice services such as bail supervision and community sentences; reinforces the commitment to continue to improve support for people leaving prison, including access to community services upon liberation, and throughcare; welcomes the decision by the Chief Constable to roll out the carriage of naloxone across Police Scotland and the support of officers to help preserve life and keep people safe; supports the exploration of options to deliver safer drug consumption facilities, within the existing legal framework, to help save lives, and agrees that the development of treatment targets will drive forward the expansion of protective treatment services alongside investment, and that further consultation is needed to gauge public attitudes and explore the limitations of a public health response restricted by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

The recruitment of police officers is a matter for the chief constable, who considers the size and shape of the policing workforce in light of changing demand. The latest figures show that there were 17,117 police officers in Police Scotland as at 31 December 2021. The current Scottish Government statistics show that we currently have around 32 officers per 10,000 population, compared with around 23 per 10,000 population in England and Wales.

Along with the First Minister, who addressed the Parliament on international women’s day, I welcome the recommendations in the report and have thanked Baroness Helena Kennedy and the working group for their efforts over the past year. Their work is pivotal in challenging society’s tolerance of misogyny and sending a clear message that male attitudes that emanate from prejudice and misogyny have no place in a modern, equal Scotland.

We will now consider the recommendations and will provide our response in due course, once we have had the benefit of time to examine them further. It is now incumbent on the Scottish Government to examine the recommendations with a view to ensuring that any provisions that are recommended to Parliament are workable and can meet the expectations of and intentions behind the working group’s report.

One thing that we are doing is sticking with the idea that the police are independent of Government and should be the ones who determine the configuration of police officers to respond to the threats that the member talked about—unless he is looking for direct Government control of policing, which of course is quite possible in the case of the Conservatives—[Interruption.]

It might well be that Stephen Kerr is embarrassed by the example of Tories in government on policing, when the Tories failed to fund police numbers—[Interruption.] I know that he does not want to hear that. He does not want to hear about how the Tories have treated police pay or about the Tory Prime Minister who does not think that fraud is a real crime—[Interruption.]

We get regular updates that go down to individual prison level. During the worst of the pandemic, they set out the increases in individual prisons and the movement between wings when people had to be isolated. The updates that I get also mention new prisoners coming in and give some background on where the virus is thought to have started and whether it was brought in by someone new coming into the prison. They give details of the number of prisoners who have been vaccinated once, twice or three times, and details about levels of testing. They also give levels of testing among prison staff. They are pretty detailed, regular accounts.

I have asked lots of questions that might have encroached into other systems that the Government has put in place for the general management of the pandemic, but apart from asking for more information, I cannot think of any time that I have had to intervene to impose a political steer on things.

Yes, Allister Purdie might be best placed to answer that. However, the number, which Allister will be able to confirm or otherwise, includes quite a high level of remand prisoners, for reasons that we are all aware of, as well as people moving in and out of prison. The Prison Service is more susceptible to and not at all immune from the wider increase in the figures that we have seen in the past week or so.

It will not need the annual review. Even in advance of an annual milestone, it is possible for the Government to decide that the powers are no longer needed and, if the committee thinks that the situation has changed sufficiently, it can request that of the Government.