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One such measure would be highlighting the huge issues that women on remand face. There are still far too many women on remand and in custody. Although we are 10 years on from the Angiolini report, which concluded that we have to stop locking women up for low-level offences, that is still happening. There are many causes of such offending—addiction problems, mental health problems, chaotic lifestyles and so on—and, at that level, prison is not the place for women. Our objective is to keep pressing the issue and to look at what are pretty radical new ways of keeping women out of prison. After all, prison does not help them; indeed, it just makes the situation that they find themselves in much worse, given the mental health effects, and so on. Moreover, it affects not just them but the wider family and their children. Only 5 per cent of children whose mother is in prison remain in the family home, which indicates how disruptive such an approach is. We are focusing on all aspects of how the situation could be improved and on how a much more holistic method might be brought in.

That is really interesting and helpful. Do you have an end point for that? Are you working within a timescale to produce that evidence?

Thank you.

I see that we have Leeanne Hughes back online. Leeanne, I do not know whether you heard my question. I will not go through it all again. Your submission refers to women whose tolerance to drugs reduces during their sentences, and they often overdose when they come out. You say that that has been a problem during Covid because of the lack of access to GPs. Could you expand on that, please?

Natalie, the first time you spoke you alluded to a gap in services. Can you expand a wee bit on your thoughts on that?

Would you be able to send the committee the approximate number of referrals that you make?

I am interested primarily in the drugs figure. I do not know how easy it would be for you to get the other figures. It would be interesting to know, on the drugs side, how many people are being directed to services.

Is it up to each individual officer to make a judgment on whether someone should be referred? Are there guidelines for officers about that?

Neil Richardson, could you give us an update on the work of the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce and the pilot schemes that have been running? I do not know whether you know much about the Medics Against Violence pilot programme in Inverness; if you do, could you tell us a wee bit about it, to give us a rounded picture?

I have a question for Leeanne Hughes. The submission from Sacro and Shine says:

“From April-September 2021, 63% of all prison referrals in Shine related to women on remand.”

Those women are usually on remand for low-level offences, and some of them have

“serious drug dependency problems and may also be on a methadone prescription”.

I do not think that such women should be anywhere near prison.

The submission also states that, during their sentence, women’s tolerance to drugs reduces, and problems arise if women who are released use drugs in the same way as they did previously, which can result in overdoses. It says that the problem of women overdosing has been exacerbated during Covid, because of the lack of access to GP services. Could you expand on those points, please, Leeanne?

Leeanne does not seem to be there. Would anyone else like to respond until she returns?

That was the word that you used. Can you expand on that?