Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 11 November 2025
11 Nov 2025 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Topical Question Time
Drug Deaths
This is an area that the Liberal Democrats want the Government to succeed in. People are dying. I remember the widespread acclaim that accompanied the appointment of Dr Matheson to lead the task force. It is very dispiriting, then, to hear the concerns that she has raised about the Government’s approach.
We want evidence-based solutions. I visited the Thistle centre in the early morning one day in the October recess. Since that facility opened in January, it has prevented or reversed 60 overdose events through its pharmaceutical interventions. That is 60 people who are alive today who very likely would not be if they had been on the street, so I utterly reject Annie Wells’s assertion that the Thistle is not working. [Interruption.]
In the same item of business
2. Katy Clark (West Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported comments by Professor Catriona Matheson, former chair of the drug deaths task force, that the...
The Minister for Drug and Alcohol Policy and Sport (Maree Todd)
SNP
The latest drug deaths statistics show a 13 per cent decrease and the lowest number registered since 2017. That is welcome, but we know that there is more to...
Katy Clark
Lab
Given those comments, does the minister agree that the Scottish Government must focus on delivery to reduce drug deaths, rather than on chasing headlines, an...
Maree Todd
SNP
I agree that it is really important that we follow the evidence, and the Scottish Government is committed to taking an evidence-based approach to the issue, ...
Katy Clark
Lab
The face of the drugs crisis has changed with the emergence of synthetic opioids, which are linked to more than 100 deaths across Scotland, many of which hav...
Maree Todd
SNP
I have already outlined the clinical and practitioner role in developing evidence. I assure the member that, in last year’s figures, one of the substantial a...
Audrey Nicoll (Aberdeen South and North Kincardine) (SNP)
SNP
What progress is the Scottish Government making on reducing drug harms? In particular, what work is being done to target the delivery of more residential reh...
Maree Todd
SNP
Increasing the provision of residential rehab and ensuring that it is available to everyone who wants it and for whom it is deemed to be clinically appropria...
Annie Wells (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
Professor Matheson is right that the national mission “was more about controlling the narrative than addressing drug deaths”, which are still the highest i...
Maree Todd
SNP
It is clear that the Government and the Parliament had some significant concerns about the bill’s overly medicalised approach. It did not reflect the evidenc...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
This is an area that the Liberal Democrats want the Government to succeed in. People are dying. I remember the widespread acclaim that accompanied the appoin...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Let us hear one another.
Alex Cole-Hamilton
LD
With that weight of evidence, why can we not extend that pilot to other parts of the country that are equally struggling with the scourge of drug deaths? Int...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Let us hear one another.
Maree Todd
SNP
Members will understand the challenges that are associated with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, which were such a barrier to the introduction of the Thistle in...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
That concludes topical question time.