Turning Point Scotland’s 218 service in Glasgow will close in February. Glasgow City Council presented the service with an unworkable budget of £650,000, down from £1.5 million. The funding was previously ring fenced by the Scottish Government, which signed off a reduction in that funding in a letter on 31 May last year. That decision has, in effect, resulted in the closure of the service.

Is the First Minister content that there is now no bed facility for women offenders with drug use as their main problem—a facility that has kept hundreds of women out of jail? The Lilias centre in Maryhill, which is brilliant, was cited by the cabinet secretary in her response to the news, but it is not an alternative to custody disposal. Ministers surely cannot wash their hands of this tragic outcome.

I know the 218 project well. I visited it when I was on the Justice Committee, many years ago now. It is a project that I know is doing some excellent work. This is a decision made by Glasgow City Council in relation to the services that it is able to fund. I am more than happy to ask the justice secretary to engage with Glasgow City Council on that issue. I know the excellent work that Turning Point’s 218 service has done over the years. By giving that intensive support to female offenders, we can stop the cycle of reoffending, and I value the project very highly.

Of course, we have maintained our budget in relation to the national mission dealing with drugs deaths in particular, but nobody should be in any doubt that this Government believes in community justice disposals. That is why I will ask the appropriate cabinet secretary to pick up the issue with Glasgow City Council.