Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee has launched an inquiry examining the pilot Safer Drug Consumption Facility (SDCF) which opened in Glasgow’s East End yesterday.
- New inquiry: Problem drug use in Scotland follow-up: Glasgow’s Safer Drug Consumption Facility
- Submit evidence
- Scottish Affairs Committee
The facility, on Hunter Street, is the UK’s first official consumption room for illegal drugs. Known as ‘the Thistle,’ the facility will enable people to consume illegal drugs under medical supervision.
By doing so, the facility aims to reduce overdoses and associated public disorder, whilst also offering health reduction services to people who do not receive other health and social supports.
The inquiry will focus specifically on the legal and policy challenges faced in setting up and running the facility, its current legal position and the challenges this presents, as well as the facility’s effectiveness in reducing drug-related deaths in Scotland.
The inquiry will consider what legal changes at UK level might be necessary to enable the facility to operate sustainably beyond its three-year pilot.
The inquiry will also follow up on relevant aspects of the Scottish Affairs Committee’s previous work on this issue in the 2017-19 Parliament.
Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Patricia Ferguson MP, said: “Scotland has the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe, and Glasgow is at the centre of this crisis. It’s vital that things change and that both Governments work together to tackle problem drug use and stop people dying.
“In 2019, a predecessor Scottish Affairs Committee recommended that the UK Government should support a pilot drug consumption room like this in Glasgow. Since then, policy and legal developments have made the facility a reality.
“This new inquiry is an important opportunity for us to look closely at how the facility reduces the harm caused by problem drug use, and what legal changes might be needed if the facility is to be made permanent.”
Terms of reference
The Committee welcomes written submissions on some or all of the following points by 13th February 2025:
1. Why is a pilot Safer Drugs Consumption Facility (SDCF) being opened in Glasgow, and how is it intended to reduce harm from problem drug use in the area?
- What were the key legal, policy and political barriers to opening the pilot facility?
- How can the medical effectiveness or impacts of the pilot facility be measured, and what does ‘success’ look like?
- What lessons can be learned from international contexts, when considering the medical effectiveness of the facility?
2. What is the current legal position of the SDCF in Glasgow?
- Is the SDCF’s current legal position sustainable to enable the effective operation of the facility in the long-term?
- How would the Lord Advocate’s decision that it would “not be in the public interest” to prosecute users or facilitators of Glasgow’s SDCF operate in practice?
- What issues could be presented by the facility’s current legal position, including in respect of civil liability?
- What implications does the facility have for local policing?
3. What does a long-term, sustainable legal framework for a SDCF look like?
- What legal and/or policy changes would be required from the UK Government to implement such a model?
- What lessons can be learned from international contexts, when considering a sustainable legal model for a SDCF.
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