Chamber and committees

We know that people affected by substance use and their families face ongoing issues relating to out of hours support. The Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) operate a services directory which has details of drug and alcohol support services across Scotland.

As well as local contacts, we support national phone lines that are available for anyone to call. Know the Score operate a phoneline which is open until 9pm during the week and then open 10am until 4pm on weekends. This provides free, confidential support for people experiencing issues with drugs, alcohol or mental health.

Scottish Recovery Consortium publish information on recovery communities and local groups which operate during the Christmas period and this is available on their website ahead of Christmas.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-30423 on 22 October 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority has made a series of safety recommendations regarding hospital helicopter landing sites following a tragic accident in Plymouth, in 2022. The safety recommendations apply across the UK and those that are applicable to Scottish sites are being acted on by NHS Boards, with support from NHS Assure.

While this work is ongoing, Search and Rescue helicopters will land at alternative sites where this is required for safety reasons. Scottish Air Ambulance and charity air ambulances can continue to land at NHS Scotland helipads.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The key group responsible for co-ordinating the national cancer registries of all the UK nations, as well as the Republic of Ireland, is the UK and Ireland Association of Cancer Registries (UKIACR). Achieving consistency and comparability in the collection, analysis and reporting of cancer data are among the UKIACR’s Terms of Reference. The Director of the Scottish Cancer Registry represents Scotland on this group.

The UK and Ireland cancer registries all adhere, where possible, to the recommendations of the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR).

Public Health Scotland (PHS) records all tumours using the ICD-O3 classification and is therefore able to routinely report on blood cancers in many different ways. This includes a variety of benchmarks such as incidence rates, quality performance indicators and survival.

The adoption of any new technology for policing purposes must be done in a way that secures public confidence. It is important to have clear governance frameworks which take account of ethical and human rights obligations in this area, which is why the Scottish Government commissioned the report into emerging technologies. The report confirmed that Scotland is in a strong position to become world-leading in adopting a rights-based, ethical approach to the adoption of emerging technologies in policing.

The Scottish Government last wrote to the Chief Constable in February 2023 enclosing a copy of the Review of emerging technologies in policing report.

It should be noted that the monitoring of progress to address the report’s recommendations is being taken forward through the Scottish Police Authority. Progress was to be reported and tracked through the Police Scotland Change Board and a short life working group was to task sub-forums across the organisation with activities for specific workstreams where appropriate. The short life working group was to provide an update to the SPA Audit & Risk Committee on a quarterly basis. This is referred to in the note of the Policing Performance Committee - 15 June 2023 | Scottish Police Authority (spa.police.uk).

International training and deployments undertaken by UK officers are a matter for their individual services and no comparable data is available.

Further information and detail on all Police Scotland’s international activity can be obtained from the service’s International Business Development Manager who can be contacted at [email protected].

While the work of Police Scotland’s International Academy is a matter for the service, Police Scotland has a proven track record in working with other countries. In terms of training partnerships, these are in place for the work undertaken in Malawi and Zambia which predominately address gender-based violence and contribute towards achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in promoting peace, justice, and strong institutions.

In addition to this, Police Scotland host a number of international events where there is mutual collaboration and sharing of good practice with law enforcement colleagues around the world. In recent years this has involved programmes with colleagues from a variety of countries which includes USA, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Germany, New Zealand covering a range of themes including probationer training, de-escalation, recruitment and retention, equality diversity and inclusion, senior leadership and criminal justice.

Further information and detail on all International activity can be obtained from Police Scotland’s International Business Development Manager who can be contacted at [email protected].

The building work on the safer drug consumption facility is now complete and the Building Control completion certificate has been processed by Glasgow City Council.

We are currently working with our colleagues in the NHS to demonstrate full compliance with the Scottish Healthcare Technical Memoranda (SHTM)’s NHS Assure to conclude their oversight that the project, as delivered, meets the brief and relevant design parameters. This includes the bespoke ventilation system to the injection booths, for which no SHTM currently exists and the water supply which includes us connecting into an existing facility.

Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority put their joint response into the public domain in June 2023 item-2-3-1-police-scotland-spa-joint-response-to-the-iag-on-new-and-emerging-te-_.pdf. The Scottish Government published its response to the report in February 2023 Recommendations for the Scottish Government - Policing emerging technologies report: Scottish Government response - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Scottish Government is keen to ensure that local areas provide support at all times and that they assess the needs of people in their areas and work with them to design and deliver services in a way that meets the needs of people impacted by drugs and alcohol.

Through our National Mission we are providing around £250 million of investment to support local areas to assess and meet their local needs.