Before the Bill

The Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill fell at Stage 1 in October 2025. On 29 October 2026, the Scottish Parliament agreed that the right to recovery must be considered, with members from different parties supporting different versions of it. This article reads a reworked right before any proposal is lodged, so that whatever is proposed can be tested against a record already in place.

It sets out what the public record shows: the committee’s findings on diagnosis, cost and the three-week deadline, the Scottish Government’s stated position, the 2026 data showing harm moving towards cocaine and polydrug use, and the rights and standards Scotland already has. It identifies five movements to watch for as a fallen bill returns, and reads the 2025 design through four of the Seven Signals: Enclosure, Ritualized Relief, Deniable Attribution Architecture and Prophetic Legitimation. It compares Alberta’s recovery model, adopted ahead of its evidence, and separates the money that exists from the money that is only estimated or not collected, including the devolved and reserved levers involved.

The article proposes six tests for any right to recovery, applicable equally to the system Scotland has now, gives a dated list of what to watch for, and sets out a public standard of evidence. It is written from public sources only and is not commissioned or externally funded.