Evidence session
Wednesday 7 May, 9.30am, Committee Room 6, Palace of
Westminster
Glasgow's Safer Drug
Consumption Facility
The Scottish Affairs Committee will hear from the Lord Advocate
and Police Scotland in the next evidence session of its inquiry
into Glasgow's Safer Drug
Consumption Facility (SDCF), commonly known as ‘the
Thistle.'
During this session, the cross-party committee will investigate
the legal basis of the Thistle and the legal challenges it
faces.
In 2023, the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, accepted a proposal
from Glasgow City HSCP to provide a statement of prosecution
policy which would apply the prosecutorial discretion needed for
a SDCF to be established. This is in contrast to the
previous Lord Advocate's rejection of the proposal he received in
2017, where he stated that it was a matter for the UK
Parliament.
In the first panel, members will question the Lord Advocate about
what led her to a different decision to her predecessor regarding
prosecutorial discretion and what will happen after the
three-year pilot comes to an end. Questions could also focus on
the potential further legal exemptions which would allow the
expansion of services within the Thistle and explore calls for
more facilities to be opened elsewhere in Scotland.
In the second panel, MPs will investigate Police Scotland's
approach to policing the Thistle, whether the facility has
resulted in a change in local crime, and how the lack of an
exclusion zone outside the facility operates in practice.
Witnesses at 9.30am:
- Rt Hon Dorothy Bain KC, Lord Advocate, Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service Policy and Engagement, Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service
- Jenny Hamilton, Policy and Engagement, Crown Office and
Procurator Fiscal Service
Witnesses at 10.45am:
- Superintendent Joanna McEwan, Partnerships, Prevention and
Community Wellbeing, Police Scotland
/ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- The committee launched its inquiry into the Safer Drug
Consumption Facility in January. Find out more about the inquiry
and previous evidence sessions here.
- The previous Scottish Affairs Committee published a
report into problem drug
use in Scotland.
-
- A section of this report examines the case for a SDCF to
reduce harm caused by drug use, concluding that the UK
Government should support a pilot facility in Glasgow and
made recommendations that any necessary legislation should be
brought forward to allow one. The government at the time
rejected this recommendation
