Increased funding for preventing drug deaths

Additional funding of up to £20 million is being delivered to help reduce the harms and deaths caused by drug and alcohol use in the Scottish Government’s budget for 2020/21.

This is an increase of £7.3 million from within the health portfolio on top of the initial proposals in the draft budget.

The increased funding will help deliver the recommendations of the Drug Deaths Taskforce, and provide investment for mental health support. It will also allow wider consideration to additional NHS-funded rehabilitation beds.

Public Health Minister Joe FitzPatrick announced the increase at the UK Drugs Summit in Glasgow, where he said:

“The voices of people with lived experience of drug use were the focus of our Scottish Drugs Conference this week and it was an honour to hear about their various paths to recovery.

“I remain convinced that a public health approach to this emergency is the right way forward and the extra £20 million of funding will go to a range of support services, including those helping the crossover between addiction and mental health.

“The UK Government has made it clear at their summit that they are not willing to consider the bold, innovative approaches to this problem that I feel are needed. However, that doesn’t mean we will stop fighting for what we believe is right and this extra investment will help us in our efforts to save lives.”