Anas Sarwar: Drug dealers ‘walking free’ due to court waits

The Scottish Government has been accused of allowing hundreds of drug dealers to walk free due to backlogs in the court system.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who raised the matter at FMQs, said 573 charges had been dropped in the last three years because they were unable to progress to court on time.

He said this was happening at the same time Scotland was responding to a drugs death emergency, going on to criticise the lack of support for rehabilitation beds for addicts.

First Minister John Swinney said the courts were “working hard” to tackle the court backlog which had built up due to the Covid pandemic.

He also pointed to government investment in rehab and increased capacity.

Figures obtained by 1919, a magazine funded by the Scottish Police Federation, showed hundreds of charges relating to drug supply were dropped between 2022-23 and 2024-25 because statutory time-bar limits had been reached.

It also found a number of other charges had to be dropped for the same reason.

Sarwar said: “Hundreds of those accused of drug dealing [are] simply walking free, evading justice not because they were found innocent, but because of this government’s incompetence. People selling poison to their communities given the green light to destroy lives because John Swinney and his tired government can’t run a court system that sends drug dealers to prison.”

Drug deaths in Scotland are the worst in Europe, with the most recent figures showing 1,017 people had died in 2024. This was a 13 per cent reduction on the year before but considerably higher than two decades ago.

Suspected drug deaths for the first half of 2025 stand at 607.

Sarwar said the Scottish Government had not delivered on its promise to bring down drug deaths, with rehab beds “left empty” due to funding issues and “Scots not being given the treatment they need”.

MSPs will vote on the general principes of Tory MSP Douglas Ross’s members bill on Thursday afternoon which seeks to enshrine a right to rehabilitation in law. Sarwar confirmed Labour will back it.

Swinney said the government had promised to deliver 1,000 rehab placements per year by 2026 and in 2022-23, 984 had been taken up.

He also pointed to £38m being invested in projects to provide additional residential rehab places, with 513 beds available as of September 2024.

On drug charges being dropped, he said: “The issues in relation to the courts system are essentially an implication of the period during Covid in which we had a backlog of cases that had to be addressed. The court service worked incredibly hard, and works incredibly hard, to erode those backlogs that we are wrestling with.”

He added the Crown and courts were “incredibly focused” on ensuring those who undertake illegal drug activity are “brought to justice”.