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Many submissions to the committee have highlighted the difficulty of engaging in forward planning and prevention while relying on single-year funding settlements that may be linked to evidence of performance in the short term. How is the Government working with health boards to support them to engage in long-term financial planning? How likely is it that we can move to a system of multiyear budgeting, given that many of the Scottish Government’s budgetary decisions rely on those of the UK Government?

That is great. Thank you.

I will come back on Kirsten Horsburgh’s comments. If we know what is in those drugs—if we do that level of regulation—what do you believe the public health outcomes will be? We know that one of the issues is that people are not aware of the strength of the drugs that they are taking. Often, they are told that one thing is in the drug, but it actually has something else in it as well. What do you believe the public health outcomes of that policy approach would be?

Thank you.

Very briefly, if there was one area of anti-stigma work that the panel would like to see prioritised, what would it be?

That is an interesting suggestion. We should definitely take that back.

I will move on to a slightly different topic. We have often spoken in Parliament about the need for a “no wrong door” approach. Is there evidence that that is being implemented in practice, or do people who use drugs still face barriers when accessing mental health treatment and other services? That comes back to what we said earlier about thresholds to services.

I will pick up on what Tracey was saying about the multiple ways in which people can be stigmatised. How do we address that compound stigma—stigma relating to mental health conditions, blood-borne viruses, housing status and various other things—that could also be impacting individuals who use drugs? We know that stigma kills and that it is compounded by the other things that I have mentioned. How do we give a voice to the impact of that stigma? I do not think that we hear enough of that. We all know that stigma has an impact on individuals, but I do not think that we hear enough of that in people’s own words. Do you think that enough is being done to address the compound stigma?

That is great—thank you.

Good morning. I will come back to Philip Whyte on something that Emma Harper picked up earlier about preventing people from falling into poverty and ensuring that they have enough money to live on in the first place. With that in mind, what impact does the panel believe that the introduction of a universal basic income or a minimum income guarantee could have on the health and social care system in terms of reducing strain and costs?

Is work under way on putting vapes behind covers, as currently happens with cigarettes? One of the biggest concerns that we are hearing from parents is about the pervasiveness of the products, especially in shops. They can be reached by toddlers, because they are on the ends of aisles in some shops. If that was happening with cigarettes, we would rightly be outraged: vapes contain the same addictive ingredient. Is consideration being given to putting vapes behind covers?