Hansard

In January, we debated fully Scotland's drug problem and how the Executive, drug action teams, public bodies and communities in Scotland could combine to tackle it. I spoke then of Scotland's drugs strategy—"Tackling Drugs in Scotland: Action in Partnership"—and of our determination to make it work. Members voted to endorse that approach.

Every speaker in that debate reflected the concerns that we all have about drugs in Scotland about children, neglect and early drug misuse and the concentrated despair of communities where drug abuse has rotted the fabric of normal life, thriving on poverty and unemployment. In that debate, members were serious, practical and committed to action to support individuals and communities in tackling drugs.

On that day, I said that the Executive would publish an action plan to show how we are meeting the challenge of developing our strategy into a programme of action. Today, we publish that action plan and bring it to Parliament. The plan covers and links the four pillars of the strategy: young people, communities, treatment and availability. Its purpose is to set out what the Executive is doing directly and in support of agencies and anti-drugs activities in communities.

I said in January that the Executive would work together across departments in the same way that we expect local agencies to work together to deliver joint outcomes. That is why the ministerial committee on tackling drug misuse has led the development of the action plan, ensuring that health, social inclusion, education and justice work together.

We have looked behind the broad objectives and action priorities in "Tackling Drugs in Scotland" and have asked ourselves what key national policies, guidance and resources are needed at the centre to support Scotland's drug action teams and key agencies in turning priorities into action.

I said in January that our Scotland-wide efforts needed to support local work. We have therefore listened to MSPs, who have reported to us from the areas that they know well. Following the debate in January, I wrote to MSPs individually, picking up the points raised in the debate. We have been mindful of those issues of concern in drawing up the plan.

We have also listened to drug action teams. During the past six months, the 22 drug action teams across Scotland have had to report to us on their progress and plans. Those reports show that almost all areas have in place or are developing plans for drug education, prevention and harm reduction. That is welcome news. The reports also show where progress still has to be made, for instance, in raising the percentage of general practitioners involved in shared care of drug misusers. We have built up a clearer picture of where the gaps in services lie, where the drug action teams want more local action and where there is a need for closer matching of priorities to funding.

We have listened directly to local experiences. Ministers have met communities and people involved in drugs projects all over Scotland. By the end of the summer, Iain Gray, Jackie Baillie and I will have met every drug action team in Scotland. We are still listening. The plan invites ideas from people right across Scotland—by phone, e-mail, fax or post—on how communities and individuals can join in the fight against drugs.

I said in January that we were auditing what we spend, so that we can get closer to shaping services that meet real needs on the ground and give value for money. The action plan reveals that the Executive spends more than £250 million a year dealing with the drugs problem in Scotland. We know that because of the comprehensive audit of expenditure across the Executive carried out by the policy unit. Over half the directly targeted spend and drugs-related money identified in mainstream programmes is spent on treatment and rehabilitation and on prevention—40 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. Just under half is spent on enforcement. That vital information has been made available for the first time, and allows us to begin to map out in a meaningful way the gaps in the pattern of present and planned activity. It will help to get the maximum value for money from anti-drugs activity and, most important, it will help us to shift activity and expenditure to the key objectives and priorities.

I spoke in January of effective action needing to be based on good information and thorough research. Since then, we have published the fullest set of facts about drug misuse ever produced for Scotland. Every DAT and agency can now access expert, accurate and relevant facts and figures on drug misuse to inform their local strategies.

For example, Fife drug action team now has access to detailed information—down to postcode level—on the incidence of problem drug misuse reported to the database. It covers the ages of drug misusers, their gender, the drugs used and the incidence of needle sharing. All the information can be differentiated for Kirkcaldy, Glenrothes and Burntisland, for example.

Later this month, all that drugs information and much more will be available to the DATs and to agencies via a drug misuse website. Key statistics, research findings, best practice information, latest developments and links to other key sites will be available to help improve service planning and delivery and local responses.

This summer, I will publish Scotland's first dedicated drug misuse research programme, which is currently being drawn up with a wide range of expert advice. Work under the programme will be of the most practical and testing kind, addressing directly the concerns of the agencies and of those affected by drug misuse.

One of the front runners for research is investigation of the factors associated with young people starting to smoke heroin, and with the transition between smoking and injecting. That will allow us to inform in the best way prevention and treatment interventions; applying the research programme will help to ensure that valuable resources are channelled to the areas of greatest need in the most productive ways.

Countries around the world face similar problems, and comparable strategies are being adopted in other nations, with some success. During the parliamentary recess, I discussed drug prevention and treatment policy with senior advisers and practitioners working in the United States. I was particularly impressed by a number of aspects of the approach taken in New York State, for example, the operation of the drug court in Queens, New York, where I had the opportunity to discuss the working of the court with the presiding judge. Our action plan makes it clear that we, too, are now considering more non-custodial alternatives.

We are keeping up with what is happening in other countries, and are developing clear innovation in tackling drugs. We have made a number of unique advances in our approach to the problem. They include a national drug misuse research programme, with a timetable; our Government-based specialist prevention and effectiveness unit; our setting specific targets for a reduction in drug misuse in the future; local drug action teams, operating within an accountable framework; and an explicit commitment to more holistic rehabilitation—not just treating people and leaving them to fend for themselves, but getting them into training and education, so that they can start to give something back to the communities from which they have taken so much.

I said in January that we wanted to be effective in what we do. Scotland has successful projects and approaches, but we need better information on which approaches are failing, on those that could do better and on those that work and which could be spread into other areas. We also need to do more on how the various agencies can work together more effectively. We need to stop doing what is not working and use our resources instead to do more of what is working. Our new Scottish prevention and effectiveness unit will play a central role in promoting that agenda.

We will consult shortly on how the unit can best support the work of the drug action teams and agencies, so that a demanding work plan can be put in place. That wide-ranging consultation will involve MSPs, councils, MPs, the drug action teams, the voluntary sector and all the other key players with an interest in better services in Scotland and wider afield.

I spoke of action for young people. There is clear evidence that serious drug misuse in later life can be tracked back to early teen and childhood problems, including early criminal activity, truancy and problems at school. We need a range of measures to help all children to avoid drug misuse, and to give particular help to those at special risk.

We are addressing that challenge. The steps in our plan aim to ensure that every school pupil in Scotland has effective drug education, to set up a new and innovative drug misuse communications group, with an integrated strategy for getting critical information across at national and local level, and to support the care of particularly vulnerable young people.

I spoke of action for communities. While drug misuse cuts across all income groups, the greatest impact is in some of Scotland's most disadvantaged communities. The current inquiry by the Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee into drugs and deprived communities highlights the importance of understanding the connections between drug misuse and much wider social problems. We already have a range of social inclusion initiatives, but we will pay close attention to the committee's findings later this year. The Scottish Executive is committed to understanding those connections and supporting initiatives that can improve people's lives and communities.

The extra £2 million that we are making available over the next two years for drugs work through the social inclusion partnerships and drug action teams will actively engage local communities in the fight against drugs and use the expertise of experts such as local family support groups.

I spoke in January—as did many other members—of the critical importance of treatment. We are committed to expanding treatment for drug misusers. Treatment benefits drug misusers and cuts drug-related crime. The benefits of properly provided shared care schemes are particularly well established in research and we want the benefits to be widely spread throughout Scotland. We are backing that with the £6 million of extra funding for treatment that we committed for a three-year period when we came into office. I am pleased to be able to announce today that we are making a further £1 million of new money available for improved treatment services—a 9 per cent increase in provision.

Increasingly, when we talk about treatment, we are talking about the rehabilitation of drug users. In the long term, treatment alone brings only limited reward for the misuser and the wider community. We need to halt the cycle of despair that traps the drug misuser and deal with the environmental and social factors that encourage and support the addiction. To do that, we will have to open up new opportunities as part of a seamless package of care and support. We will have to make training, education and jobs accessible to people whose skills and confidence have been destroyed by their drug misuse. We will have to open up education and accommodation opportunities and link those to rehabilitation facilities. That will increase the value of our investment by turning tax takers into tax payers. We are planning an expansion of such facilities in line with our commitments in our programme for government.

To put fresh impetus into this key area, I am announcing today an additional £1 million of new money for targeted pathfinder projects, which, if successful, will be replicated. One key area for attention will be effective links into the employment of drug misusers. In spending the new money, we will ensure that the drug action teams are fully consulted and involved. All drug misuse services rely on a knowledgeable and committed work force. We need to invest in that. We will establish a new initiative for the training of staff working with drug misusers. An announcement on that will be made by the Deputy Minister for Community Care in the very near future.

We will also deal with treatment in prisons. We will shortly be publishing a revamped prisons drugs strategy—not a rehash of old policies, but a step change in the way in which drug misuse is tackled in Scotland's prisons.

I spoke about availability. The new Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency is up and running. For the first time, Scotland will have an organisation dedicated to tackling drug crime. It will build on the excellent work that has been done by the enforcement agencies, including the Scottish Crime Squad, the Scottish criminal intelligence office, Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and will help police forces to catch those who profit from this highly organised business.

The key to successful drug enforcement is to ensure that all the agencies work together in a strategic and co-ordinated way, exchange information and use that information to make informed decisions about where, on whom and on what to target their considerable expertise and resources. The SDEA will ensure that that happens. It will bring in a strategic and tactical capability for tackling drug crime at all levels. It will be backed by additional funding—£10 million over the next two years—and the up to 200 extra officers whom we have earmarked for the drug enforcement effort.

The SDEA is expected to dovetail with the treatment, prevention and education agencies. This week, Mathew Hamilton, a chief inspector in Tayside police, started work as national co-ordinator for the SDEA in one of the earliest appointments of those 200 officers. His role will be to ensure that the work of the agency supports, complements and is co-ordinated with the other activities and agencies in prevention, education and care and treatment.

I made it clear in January that we want coherent, joined-up action. Performance indicators have been introduced for many of the actions that are set out in the plan, across the four pillars, and others are being developed to monitor achievement and progress both at the centre and locally. Those indicators will monitor factors such as attendance at services, the number of young people who are taking drugs, the schools that are providing drug education, and seizures of controlled drugs. Increasingly we will focus more precisely on outputs that are delivered from agreed strategy objectives, and that is what will make the real impact in communities.

The action plan makes it clear that we will set targets that will be binding on the Executive, on drug action teams and on the agencies. Those targets will embrace our aims for young people, for action in communities, for treatment and care, and for stifling availability. They will act as a focus for the achievement of strategic objectives, and I hope that they will help to build a sense of common purpose and direction across all levels, from communities to the centre. Those targets could, for example, cover key issues such as the level of general practitioner involvement in shared care provision and the number of young people in Scotland who are trying drugs for the first time.

We have started work on what those targets should be and we will consult widely on them. Both the Executive and those who work in the field should expect to be held accountable for progress towards meeting them. The targets will be published in the autumn.

Some members suggested in January that it would be helpful to have a chart identifying the various groups and agencies that are operating in the field of drug misuse, and the way in which they link in with each other. I agree with that, and we have included such a chart in the action plan, explaining what the key players do and their relationship to each other, and indicating the respective relationships at the centre and locally.

In the debate in January, I set out the extra funding that we had put in place. Since coming into office, the Executive has started to spend the extra £27 million of additional funding that is committed to new initiatives, and will spend more than half of that sum—£14 million—on treatment and prevention. We are planning an expansion of rehabilitation facilities, including residential and other support services in the community, and I have announced today an extra £2 million for treatment and rehabilitation. We are currently involved in budget discussions within the Executive. In that budget work, we will ensure that we make best use of the existing resources that are devoted to drug misuse and examine the spending priorities in all areas, to identify the scope for further initiatives on drugs.

The Parliament, the Executive and the people of Scotland expect a lot of those who are charged with the implementation of Scotland's drugs strategy. With this action plan, we are saying that we expect the progress of the Executive, the drug action teams and the agencies to be measurable, and that we want that progress to be made in a climate of openness and accountability. We are also sending out the message to the drug action teams, the agencies and our communities that the Executive is backing them and challenging them to deliver locally.

This is not the last word on what we want to do. This is a 10-year strategy and we will continue to review different parts of the strategy as it progresses and evolves. There is much to do, and we have put substantial new resources behind the implementation of the strategy so that results will start to feed into communities as quickly as possible. We are pursuing a proper, balanced strategy that takes into account enforcement, treatment, care, rehabilitation and education.

We will continue to listen and learn, and to invest and evaluate, and we will be led by evidence and research. We will also support better performance and check that that performance is being achieved. I commend the action plan to Parliament, as a significant step in the Executive's drive to tackle drug misuse by destroying the demand for drugs and protecting young people and communities from the harm of drug misuse in Scotland.