SHAKE IT UP OR LOSE IT
QUESTIONS OVER FUTURE OF POLICY UNIT AS MSPS CLASH Drug death task force under pressure
THE Scottish Government is facing calls to shake up the Scottish drug deaths task force amid fears it may collapse after two big resignations.
The Daily Record told yesterday how the DDTF’s chair Professor Catriona Matheson and vice-chair Neil Richardson quit after drugs policy minister Angela Constance urged them to move faster.
The body was set up in 2019 to bring a quick turnaround to spiralling drug deaths but the numbers have continued to rise.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon, who previously accused the task force of moving at a “snail’s pace” in Parliament, urged the Scottish Government to clarify if the DDTF will seek new leadership or be disbanded altogether. It is feared other experts may be reluctant to take the post after the exits of Matheson and Richardson, who were ordered to produce a final raft of proposals by July 28 – months earlier than planned.
Lennon, chair of Holyrood’s cross party committee on drug and alcohol misuse, said it was time to take stock and be honest about the role of the drug deaths task force.
In a joint letter to Constance, the task force bosses wrote: “We have always understood the need for urgency in our work but we feel the current demand for speed is counterproductive and driven by other factors such as meeting targets, rather than achieving the sustainable change that evidence shows is more effective.”
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, who is also his party’s health spokesman, said: “A task force can only be as effective as the minister it reports to.
“When public health minister Joe FitzPatrick was forced out and replaced by Angela Constance 12 months ago, it was only a matter of time before its output and performance was questioned.”
Constance said: “It is vital that we accelerate our existing work, and our focus on delivery and implementation.”