– in the Scottish Parliament at on 24 September 2015.
6. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to address the issue of new psychoactive substances. (S4O-04633)
Substantial progress has been made across many fronts, including on all the recommendations of the NPS expert review group. For example, I have written to all Scottish local authorities to request that they ban NPS in their public entertainment licences, and guidance to support trading standards staff across Scotland was launched last week.
New psychoactive substances also remain a priority for alcohol and drug partnerships, and improving identification and preventative activities that are focused on NPS is set out as a requirement in their local delivery plans. I thank Graeme Dey and Nigel Don for the work that they have done locally to help tackle these substances, and I thank Mr Dey for his participation on the NPS ministerial cross-party working group.
Mr Dey has raised an important point. The Scottish Government is contributing to the cost of infrastructure that has allowed new high-tech machinery to be secured. We are also engaging further with stakeholders, including through the publication yesterday of a questionnaire to understand views on the proposed definition of NPS, the categorisation of NPS, improvement in data collection and, crucially, the potential functions of a forensic centre for excellence to lead detection and identification of NPS and assessment of the extent of the psychoactivity of substances and the harms that they are likely to cause. Functions of that centre could include developing national reference standards to become a national resource in the field, linking with other data systems at European Union and United Kingdom levels as well as the Welsh emerging drugs and identification of novel substances—WEDINOS—project, and acting as a central resource for enforcement agencies and, potentially, the national health service on emerging trends in NPS.