4. How is the Welsh Government supporting people with drug addictions in South Wales West? OQ58991

The Welsh Government continues to support people who experience problematic use of both drugs and alcohol. We are investing almost £64 million in our substance misuse agenda in this financial year, and that will increase to almost £67 million in 2023-24. 

Thank you, First Minister. I'm sorry to say that Swansea suffers from the largest number of drug-related deaths in Wales, with nearly 200 people dying of drug misuse over the last five years. The situation has now been worsened by the flooding of fake benzodiazepines onto Swansea's streets. Last week it was also reported that one in 10 of those on a drug rehabilitation programme in the Swansea Bay health board area were waiting over 40 weeks for treatment. I know you'll be likely to blame COVID—and, yes, it's had an impact on services—however, the problems in Swansea date back to before the pandemic. Overall in Wales, drug-related deaths have jumped by 44 per cent over the last year. So, what urgent measures are you taking to ensure that people in Swansea are getting the treatment that they need, and do you recognise that the substance misuse delivery plan is failing to deliver for those who need it the most?

I fundamentally disagree with the last point the Member made. He's right to say that drug-related deaths in the last year for which figures are available rose in Wales, as they did in every part of the United Kingdom, but they fell in Swansea. So, that's an important thing to recognise as well. I do accept that there are particular challenges in the Swansea Bay area, and we need a full commitment from all members of the area planning board in that area to bringing about improvement. The Swansea Bay truth commission, chaired by a former very senior public health consultant and a former police assistant chief constable, is itself bringing together local players and people with direct experience of these matters, to try to make sure that there is a pathway to improvement, and we look forward to their final report in September of this year.

Waiting times are too long in the Swansea Bay area, and they can be better. In Bridgend, which was until quite recently part of the Swansea Bay health board, waiting times are now 10 days for treatment. If you can do it in Bridgend, it can be done in Swansea as well, and it's important that lessons are learnt from good practice in places that have struggled to be in the same position.

We continue to work closely across the jagged edge of devolved and non-devolved services in this area, and we've been pleased to work closely, through the Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael, with the Home Office project ADDER—Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery—a project that seeks to bring together the forces of both policing and treatment to make a difference in the Swansea area. I know that my colleague Lynne Neagle visited that project in October of last year, and it is by bringing together the different services that can make a difference in this area that we will be able to make the progress that we want to see in Swansea Bay.

Speaking of Bridgend, before being elected, I was a trustee to Brynawel drug and rehab centre, which is in my colleague Huw Irranca-Davies's constituency of Ogmore. They offer a wide range of holistic approaches to support people with their rehabilitation from addictions. I have seen what fantastic support is out there, and the barriers that people can overcome when they have the access to the right support.

Research from the Centre for Social Justice argues that today, actually, more of us are vulnerable to addiction than ever before, with over-prescription practices, drugs culture infiltrating social media, the growth of the dark web, aggressive gambling marketing, and conditions like anxiety being exploited by dealers in illicit medication. In their report, 'Road to Recovery: addiction in our society – the case for reform', they call for a whole-person approach to help individuals with recovery. As they put it, recovery starts with the individual, but it takes a compassionate and determined community to make that a reality.

So, First Minister, would you agree with me that, despite the continued challenge to tackle substance misuse, the partnership work that we have here in Wales through the area planning board structure and the £67 million of funding that is being protected and increased within our budget, along with our long-standing commitment to a harm-reduction approach, has underpinned Wales's strong response to tackling a very complex and multifaceted issue? Diolch.

Well, Llywydd, I begin by paying tribute to the work that goes on at Brynawel—a project that unites people across this Chamber in the work that's been invested in making it a success. The approach we've taken in Wales is a harm-reduction approach, one that recognises the pressures that exist and that propel people into these difficulties, and thinks of substance misuse as a public health issue, not one that is solely related to criminal justice. The partnership approach is absolutely fundamental to that, and so is using new opportunities as they come our way.

When I chaired the policing board for Wales last, we were joined by the then policing Minister at the UK Government, Kit Malthouse, and we discussed the way in which, in Wales, we have led the way in making available a new form of treatment, buvidal. Over 1,200 service users across Wales are now benefiting from that form of treatment, with 172 in the Swansea bay area. Kit Malthouse said at that meeting that the investment that Wales is making in that new and innovative treatment is leading the way across the whole of the United Kingdom. So, it's a combination, isn't it, of using our strengths, the partnerships we have on the ground, while at the same time being willing to invest in new opportunities that can do good in the lives of people who otherwise have experienced such significant harm.