Hansard

Thank you. I agree with Alex Cole-Hamilton’s point, and I am grateful to him for the way in which he has approached the bill. I know that he needs to be convinced on some aspects of it, but he is willing to get behind it to allow further debate and support.

I go back to the point that we are voting on the general principles today. We are not voting on implementation issues that may be a cause for concern; it is only about whether we want to support the general principles.

I also want to thank the people who have helped the bill to get to this stage. Annemarie Ward and Stevie Wishart are the architects of the bill. They were living and breathing it long before I picked up the parliamentary reins to take it through Holyrood. They are the most knowledgeable and articulate advocates for the bill and for getting people the help and support that they need when they need it. If the bill passes stage 1 today, it will be because of the work of Stevie and Annemarie, and I will forever be grateful to them for what they have done.

I also thank all the party leaders and ministers. I have spoken to the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, and representatives of every party. I spoke to them at the beginning of the process, and I had to speak to more of them at the end of the process, because there are now more parties represented in the Parliament. I am grateful to everyone who has engaged during the process.

I am grateful to the committees that considered my bill—the Finance and Public Administration Committee, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee and the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. I thank everyone who engaged with those committees and with my consultation on the bill. I thank Elliot Roy, who supported me through the early stages of the bill, and Jamie Carter. I thank Aris Wilson, in my office, who did a lot of the work to get people round the table so that I could speak to them. I also thank the press for its backing for the campaign, including The Times, in today’s edition of which I explained why MSPs should rally behind the bill, and the Sunday Post, which, at the weekend, gave us a clear picture of what is at stake.

My final thanks in my opening remarks go to members of the non-Government bills unit, who are sitting at the back of the chamber: Neil Stewart, Roz Thomson and Alison Fraser. I have said this in relation to other non-Government bills. I am on my final lap in this Parliament, as I will be leaving it in a few months’ time, but I will tell anyone who has the honour of being elected here that that group is one that they should focus on, embrace and support, because those individuals can take an idea, put it into words in draft legislation, help with scrutiny, do all the hard work and the heavy lifting and, in some cases, allow us to put our hopes and aspirations into law. I am very grateful to the three of them. [Applause.]

The details of the bill are known, and I will not reiterate them, but I want to talk about the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s scrutiny. I was disappointed that a majority of the committee felt unable to support the general principles of the bill, but I know from my experience on the Education, Children and Young People Committee that some Scottish National Party members voted against the general principles of a bill that that committee considered but were then able to abstain in the stage 1 vote in Parliament. I hope that Government members will consider that today.

The committee was right to recognise in its report

“the strength of evidence it has seen and heard throughout its Stage1 scrutiny of this Bill of a high level of dissatisfaction with current availability of and access to support services for those experiencing harm from drug or alcohol misuse.”

That is it. The committee has heard that evidence. The Government knows that what the committee said is true, because it has told us so publicly and in meetings. That is why we need to pass the bill.

I reiterate that the bill was developed and drafted by people with lived experience. They know what the problems are and they know what the solutions are, and my bill is one of them.

I had intended to go through a number of issues with the committee’s report, but I have already taken up quite a lot of time. I was open with the committee—I said to the convener and the members of the committee, to whom I am grateful for the work that they did, “We can work together to amend elements of the bill.” That is what our parliamentary process is about. We should look at areas of concern. I hold my hands up: the bill is not perfect. There are areas that I had not even thought about until I was questioned about them as part of the committee’s scrutiny, in relation to which it became clear that the bill could and should be improved. We have the opportunity to do that.

A number of points would have to be addressed—although, in some cases, that would involve quite significant amendments, in others, it would require only limited amendments—in order to get the bill through. We must look at those areas.

I hope that I have shown throughout the bill process—I sat through every committee session on the bill, and I have tried to engage with members across Parliament—that I am willing to work with and listen to people inside and outside the Parliament to make the bill better and to get it right. Some stakeholders have reservations about the bill and some whole-heartedly support it, but they would all like to work together to improve it if we can get it through stage 1 today. However, we must get past stage 1 to do that.

As MSPs consider their votes this afternoon, I ask them to think about the optics of shutting down the debate on a bill that seeks to tackle our national shame of drug and alcohol deaths. Exactly one week ago today, the Parliament agreed to the general principles of the Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. Surely we do not want to find ourselves in a situation in which the Parliament is more interested in debating pets being stolen than in people dying, but that will be the outcome if members vote down my bill tonight. I make a plea to members across the chamber: support the bill and give us time to improve it, so that we can have a bill that we, in Parliament, and people across Scotland can rally behind.

I am exceptionally proud and genuinely honoured to move the motion in my name.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill.