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The new national service will ensure that an offer of support is available to all eligible individuals who are serving a short sentence (under 4 years), or being held on a period of remand.

As with the current Shine and New Routes Public Social Partnership services, the new service will be voluntary, and individuals will have a choice about whether they wish to sign up to the service.

Dedicated prison-based workers will provide initial support during the custodial environment and will contribute to effective multi-agency pre-release planning. Prior to liberation, individuals will be introduced to their community worker who will provide support on release.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The number of assaults on staff in HMP Inverness in the last 5 years are as follows:

The SPS engaged the services of legal advisers, cost consultants, insurance brokers and geo-technical consultants to advise on cost controls within the contract. It would not be appropriate for SPS to publish this advice as it is commercially sensitive information, however SPS will publish a summary of their Business Case on their website.

SPS will publish information on the releases under the changes to sentencing for short-term prisoners on their website and SPS has previously published information on releases under the emergency release legislation also on their website.

SPS continue to be as open and transparent as possible, whilst continuing to meet their statutory obligation to ensure that those in their care have their personal information protected; as such SPS cannot publish a breakdown of establishments as some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which may lead to their inadvertent identification.

The Scottish Government are progressing a range of actions to support a sustainable reduction in the prison population, including:

• The passage of the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025, which changes the point of release for most prisoners serving short-term sentences of under four years from following 50% of their sentence, to following 40% of their sentence.
• Increasing community justice funding by £14m this year to a total of £148m to further strengthen alternatives to custody.
• Introducing regulations that enable GPS technology to be used to monitor individuals being released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC).
• SPS continue to optimise the appropriate use of HDC which allows certain prisoners who have met the requirements of a risk assessment to spend up to 180 days in the community.
• We intend to bring forward secondary legislation to amend the use of HDC with the intention of increasing the period of time individuals can spend on release under licence conditions.
• We have increased the use of electronically monitored bail which is now available in every local authority and its use is at record levels.
• The establishment of an independent review of sentencing and penal policy which will focus on reducing reoffending and ensuring custody is used at the right time, for the right individuals.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The needs and welfare of all those who live and work in our prisons remains a key priority for SPS, as we continue to manage our highly complex population with a person-centred approach.

Supported centrally by SPS Headquarters, establishments have specific arrangements in place to manage their regime during periods of a high prison population. These arrangements include additional staff on shift to support both operations and residential areas and the application of local staff shortage protocols if there are insufficient staff to run a full regime safely.

The Scottish Government has regular discussions with the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) on risks and contingency plans for the prison estate, including HMP Barlinnie.

In response to recommendations made by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, SPS took forward HMP Barlinnie Programme of Works which significantly improved facilitates within the prisoner reception and healthcare areas. These works concluded in April 2023.

This was a 2-stage procurement process, and 4 contractors bid at the 1st stage Pre-construction phase of the process. These bidders were Balfour Beatty Group, Graham Construction, Kier Construction and Laing O'Rourke.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The needs and welfare of all those in our care remains a key priority for SPS as we continue to manage our highly complex population with a person-centred approach.

SPS continually assess risk, including that presented by an increasing population. Establishment specific indicators are analysed and assessed with identified risks mitigated where possible, this includes but is not limited to the utilisation of our existing estate.

The Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Government are committed to the replacement of HMP Inverness with HMP Highland to create better environments for people to live and work, to aid rehabilitation, reduce the risk of reoffending, and support safer communities.

SPS are unable to publish the full breakdown of costs as disclosure would be commercially prejudicial to the management of the contract, and to the contractor.

SPS can confirm that the contract contains liquidated damages for any delays.