General Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 16 January 2025.
Audrey Nicoll
Scottish National Party
To ask the Scottish Government how its draft budget 2025-26 will support the delivery of drug and alcohol services across Scotland. (S6O-04204)
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
The total funding proposed for alcohol and drug services, including health board baseline funding, is over £150 million in 2025-26. That includes maintaining £112 million of funding for alcohol and drug partnerships; continuing to fund grass-roots organisations through £13 million of funding via the Corra Foundation; supporting a wide range of activity, including residential rehabilitation; and making £2.3 million available to support the Thistle centre, the safer drug consumption facility.
That adds to our significant investment over the past four years and means that I am confident that we will meet the national mission’s commitment to £250 million of additional funding over five years.
Audrey Nicoll
Scottish National Party
During recent engagement with general practitioner practices, tackling alcohol harm was raised as an unrelenting health challenge. They expressed strong support for minimum unit pricing and other measures to tackle alcohol harm. However, they also expressed some concern about a potential shift in the balance away from tackling alcohol harm—a point highlighted in the recent Audit Scotland review of alcohol and drug services. That is not to diminish the urgency of the work to reduce drug harm.
In addition to previously announced efforts, such as a review of the evidence on alcohol marketing, increasing MUP and developing a service specification for alcohol and drug services, what assurance can the Cabinet secretary give that the draft Scottish budget will support the action necessary to reduce the level of alcohol-related health and social harms and reduce the number of people who die as a result of alcohol?
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
I want to reassure Audrey Nicoll and other colleagues across the Parliament that we remain committed to and focused on tackling both issues. We remain committed to tackling alcohol-related harm on an equal footing with harm caused by drugs. Our forecast spend in 2025-26 of more than £150 million is for both alcohol and drug services, and our substantial investment supports services that are often delivered in tandem at the front line.
In addition, national mission initiatives have made improvements in treatment for alcohol as well as drugs. For example, our substantial investment in residential rehabilitation is benefiting people with both alcohol and drug dependency. Moreover, the forthcoming alcohol treatment guidelines will provide support for alcohol treatment that is similar to the medication-assisted treatment standard for drugs.
Carol Mochan
Labour
The Audit Scotland report that was published towards the end of last year states, in its findings, that the
“Government’s increased focus on drug harm through its National Mission programme is shifting the balance of attention from, and effort on, tackling alcohol harm.”
The Government has said that this is a twin public health emergency, and we accept that. However, sometimes the Government tends to set out a semi-complete list of disjointed actions relating to alcohol harm prevention. We need clearer actions and more urgency. Through its 2025-26 budget, is the Scottish Government considering ring fencing funding for improving access to alcohol treatment services?
Neil Gray
Scottish National Party
I will continue to work with alcohol and drug partnerships to ensure that, as Carol Mochan asks, the services are available to provide support for addressing both alcohol and drug use.
We are also taking action this year with Public Health Scotland to provide an evidence-based picture of what further preventative actions we can take on alcohol advertising. When the report comes back from Public Health Scotland, we will consider what further preventative measures we can take on that.
Through the interventions that we are making with alcohol and drug partnerships, the work that we are doing on minimum unit pricing and the work that we are doing to reduce the impact that alcohol advertising has, we are taking as many steps as possible. If Carol Mochan wishes to suggest further work, I am more than happy to engage with her on that.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
