Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, convener, and thank you for letting me join the meeting. Good morning to the minister.

According to the statistics, in 93 per cent of drug deaths, more than one drug was present. I note that the report contains little reference to alcohol. Do we know how regularly alcohol was present with another substance? From my experience, both in my personal life and in dealing with constituents, I know that alcohol often leads to other things. When it comes to measures for prevention and early intervention, what research is being done on the part that alcohol plays in drug misuse or, equally, on those statistics?

I note that the Drug Deaths Taskforce’s final report states that it found

“tentative support ... for ... decriminalisation or a regulated market”,

which have been shown to reduce drug deaths in other countries. Such an approach would allow resources to be better focused and could work to reduce stigma among the general population. Would the Government pursue such an approach if it were possible? Will the minister advise the committee of any discussions that have taken place with her counterparts at Westminster on the issue? The UK Government has recently suggested that it will follow a more punitive approach that could work against the public health approach that we are taking here in Scotland

We move to Jeremy Balfour, who has questions on co-design.

I thank the minister and all the other witnesses who joined us this morning. The evidence sessions have been very helpful.

That concludes our public business for today. Next week, we will take evidence from VoiceAbility on its progress to date on providing independent advocacy under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. We will also consider an instrument relating to the Scottish child payment regulations.

We will move on to our next theme. There has been quite a bit of crossover in our discussion, so I believe that only one member wants to come in here.

Fabulous. In that case, we will move on to our third theme, which is homelessness. We will hear first from the deputy convener, Emma Roddick.

Foysol Choudhury, who joins us online, has a question.

We move to a supplementary question from James Dornan, who joins us online.

Good morning, and welcome to the 30th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Under agenda item 1, do we agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

In our main item of business today, we will take evidence from two panels on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. This is our second evidence session on the bill.

I welcome our first panel. With us in the room are Frank McKillop, head of policy and research, Enable Scotland; Rachel Cackett, chief executive officer, Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland; Beth Reid, senior policy officer, Crisis; Chris Gehrke, community leader/director, L’Arche Highland; and Andrew Ewen, chief of staff, Leonard Cheshire. Joining us remotely is Sheena Arthur, partnership manager for health and social care, Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector.

Before we start, I will make a few points about the format of the meeting. I ask Sheena Arthur and committee members who are attending remotely to wait for me or the member who is asking the question to say their name before they speak. Sheena, please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you start to speak. You can indicate that you wish to respond to a question by typing the letter R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans, or simply by showing your hand.

I say to all our witnesses that you should not feel that you have to answer every question. If you have nothing new to add to what others have said, that is fine. We have a big panel and we have a lot to cover, so I ask everyone to keep questions, answers and any follow-up questions tight, please.

Colleagues who are in the room should indicate to me or the clerk that they wish to ask a supplementary question. I ask all members to direct their questions to a specific member of the panel. Committee members who are online should use the chat box or WhatsApp. We are quite tight for time, but I will try to give all members opportunities for questioning.

We move straight to questions.