I, too, welcome the agreement on a Gaza ceasefire, the end of the bloodshed and the release of hostages. The ceasefire must be real and it needs to last. However, it must also be backed up by an urgent surge in delivery of aid into Gaza and a meaningful pathway towards an end to the illegal occupation and a lasting peace in which every life—whether it be Palestinian or Israeli—is treated as equal.

Today, members will vote on the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. Scottish Labour will support the bill. Six years ago, the Scottish National Party declared a drug deaths emergency. However, six years on, lives are still being lost, families are still grieving and a generation has been failed. In the first six months of this year alone, 607 people died from suspected drug overdoses—that is one life lost every seven hours.

When it comes to recovery, the picture is just as bleak. The SNP has not delivered the promised rehabilitation beds. Even more shamefully, 77 per cent of areas report being unable to access rehab spaces because they do not have the money that they need from the SNP Government. Rehab beds are lying empty in the middle of a drug deaths emergency. Six years into this emergency, why are beds being left empty, and why are Scots not getting the treatment that they need if they are to recover?

I recognise both the importance of drugs support for individuals and the need to deliver on the commitments that we made as part of the programme for government.

On the specific issue that Mr Sarwar raises, we made a commitment to establish 1,000 publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements per year by 2025-26. The most recent Public Health Scotland publication shows that there were 984 confirmed records of individuals having started such placements in 2022-23. We have made £38 million available to eight projects across Scotland to provide additional residential rehabilitation beds. The latest published figures report a rise in capacity of 88 beds, giving a total of 513 in September 2024, and there has been further expansion since then.

I assure Mr Sarwar, first, of the importance of that endeavour and, secondly, of the practical steps that have been taken to implement the commitments that we have given, and that we will continue to implement.

The promises have not been fulfilled, and the families who have been left behind deserve justice, not excuses. Shamefully, new figures show that, in the past three years, 573 charges of drug dealing had to be dropped because the cases were time barred before reaching court. Hundreds of people who were accused of drug dealing simply walked free. They evaded justice not because they were found innocent but because of the Government’s incompetence. People selling poison to their communities are being given the green light to destroy lives because John Swinney and his tired Government cannot run a court system that sends drug dealers to prison. I reiterate that 573 drug-dealing charges have simply been dropped. Can John Swinney understand why people will be so angry when they learn that, despite one life being lost to drugs every seven hours in Scotland, hundreds of drug dealers are walking free?

The issues with the court service are an effect of the situation that developed during the Covid pandemic, when a backlog of cases had to be addressed. The court service worked—and is still working—incredibly hard to erode the backlog that we have been wrestling with, and significant work has been undertaken.

I will look at other data. As the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs reported to Parliament last Thursday, our prisons are incredibly congested, in many cases with individuals who have been convicted and sentenced for long periods of time as a consequence of their drug-related activities. Our prison system and the Scottish Prison Service are wrestling admirably with the congestion that is caused by the many people involved in the organised crime that underpins the drug issues.

I know that the Crown and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service are working incredibly hard, and in an incredibly focused way, to ensure that those who perpetrate illegal drug activity in our society are brought to justice, and that many of them are.

There is no justification—none—for hundreds of drug dealers walking free because of the incompetence of this Scottish National Party Government. There is no justification at all.

This Government has lost control: 607 lives have been lost in just six months, which is one every seven hours; 573 drug supply charges have gone unpunished; and there is still not enough access to treatment or residential rehab for those who want to recover. The truth is that John Swinney’s approach is failing both victims and communities. Dealers slip through the cracks, people die while they wait for help, and families lose loved ones and are left without hope.

It has been six years since the Government declared an emergency, but Scotland still leads Europe on the figures for drug deaths. John Swinney has abandoned both justice and recovery. Is it not the case that we will never get to grips with Scotland’s drug deaths emergency while he and the SNP stay in charge?

The Government has taken a focused approach, over a number of years, to addressing the issue of drugs in our society, and a number of significant steps have been taken.

I have put on the record the issues concerning the expansion of rehabilitation placements, and the fact that the progress that we committed to is being achieved.

We have supported the delivery of the first safer consumption room. Based on the evidence that is available to us, we know that the Thistle has saved lives as a consequence of that Intervention. We have expanded the roll-out of naloxone, which is resulting in a significant reduction of death and injury to individuals who use drugs. I recognise that the level of drug deaths is far, far too high. In the past year, we have seen a 13 per cent decrease in the number of such deaths in Scotland, but we must maintain absolute vigilance and focus to ensure that we continue to make progress.

Finally, on the issue of criminal justice, our prison system is absolutely full of individuals, many of whom have been imprisoned because of their drug-related activity, so it is quite simply wrong for Mr Sarwar to suggest that people are not being brought to justice for their criminal activity. [Interruption.]

Mr Sarwar!

That will remain the focused priority of the Scottish Government.