Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 15 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the impact on the budget of (a) NHS Scotland, (b) other aspects of the healthcare sector, (c) Police Scotland, (d) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, (e) the Scottish Prison Service, (f) other law enforcement agencies and (g) other emergency services, including any estimated annual savings, of each pound of additional investment in treatment for addiction to (i) drugs and (ii) alcohol, and what information it has regarding the impact on the budgets of (A) relevant charitable or voluntary organisations and (B) local authority social work departments.
We do not currently hold information on the impact that each pound of additional investment in drugs and alcohol has had on the budgets of (a) NHS Scotland, (b) other aspects of the healthcare sector, (c) Police Scotland, (d) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, (e)?the Scottish Prison Service, (f) other law enforcement agencies and (g) other emergency services. We do not hold information on the impact of budgets of relevant charitable or voluntary organisations and local authority social work departments.
As part of the 2025-26 Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement, we conducted an overview analysis of the impact of drugs and alcohol policies on different groups of people in Scotland. However, we are endeavouring to better understand the impact of the financial uplift provided by the National Mission. Public Health Scotland (PHS) have been commissioned to conduct a comprehensive and independent evaluation of the National Mission. As part of the evaluation, PHS have also commissioned an external study of how National Mission funds have been allocated and spent, and the benefits which that expenditure has (or is likely to have) delivered.
The study will have a number of different research objectives including a summary of existing review-level evidence on treatment effectiveness and cost-effectiveness for treatments in scope, as well as an overview of evidence gaps. The economic evaluation report is anticipated to be published in the first half of 2026. The final evaluation report will be published in 2026.