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08 Sept 2025
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08 Sept 2025
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The pilot of the UK’s first consumption room will not take away vital resources from other drug addiction services, the First Minister has said.
During First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Conservative MSP Annie Wells asked Humza Yousaf to commit that services such as residential rehabilitation facilities will not be deprioritised.
Plans for a safe consumption room were announced in September after Scotland’s Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC announced it would not be in the public interest to prosecute users of such a facility.
The first-of-its-kind facility in the UK will be based in Glasgow’s Hunter Street and is expected to be used by people who currently inject drugs in public spaces.
Mr Yousaf responded to the question to say residential rehabilitation “absolutely won’t be deprioritised”.
He added: “Drug deaths are of course a public health emergency and we remain absolutely committed to investing an additional £250 million on our national mission to reduce harm and deaths caused by drugs.”
He said funding for the pilot had already been earmarked “in the knowledge that Glasgow might need to proceed quickly following the Lord Advocate’s position”.
He added: “No existing drug and alcohol services will therefore be affected to fund this pilot.”
Ms Wells said: “Residential rehabilitation is a vital way in not just helping drug users beat addiction, but to help them get their lives back. And yet, the most recent figures show people starting these facilities fell to their lowest in more than two years.
“Can the First Minister assure vulnerable people that his Government will not oversee a further reduction in places?”
Mr Yousaf said the Scottish Government is “absolutely committed” to increasing residential rehabilitation capacity by 50% by the end of the parliamentary term, with a projected 172 beds by 2025-26.
The total bed capacity would increase from 425 to 597.
Drugs and alcohol minister Elena Whitham said plans are under way to try and open the safe consumption room by the summer.
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