Chamber and committees

Photocopying of Prisoners' Mail

Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans to the Convener, Criminal Justice Committee, 3 February 2022

Dear Audrey,

Thank you for your letter of 13 January 2022 regarding the statutory instrument allowing the photocopying of prisoners' mail.

You asked how the Scottish Government plans to ensure that there is proper oversight and governance processes within the Scottish Prison Service for the operation of procedures surrounding the copying of prisoner's mail. As an operational matter that centres on the security of prisons and the care and treatment of prisoners, this falls within the operational responsibility of the Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service. However, I am aware that individual Governors-in-Charge have been asked to record the decisions they are taking around the photocopying of mail within their establishment's monthly Tactical Assessment decision log. This practice is being reviewed by Senior SPS staff on a monthly basis and application of the Prisoner Correspondence Policy is subject to local and SPS internal auditing.

All prisons, as you will be aware, are subject to independent scrutiny through the processes of formal inspection by HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland and monitoring conducted by Independent Prison Monitors. HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland has published standards for inspecting and monitoring prisons that are rooted in human rights laws and which are used by inspection teams and monitors when they are carrying out their functions. HM Chief inspector of Prisons for Scotland is able visit any prison, speak in private with any prisoner or person working at the prison and prison and examine any prison records apart from personnel records.

You also asked about the steps that the Scottish Government is taking, and what resources will be provided, for a greater roll out of in-cell telephony systems across the prison estate and for prisoners to have access to email, thereby reducing the need to receive mail through the post.

We have committed an additional £16.2m to SPS's resource budget and we are also allocating £72.8m in capital funding to continue the improvements across the prison estate. An additional £2m will be provided through the justice recovery fund for prisons.

Both the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service are committed to building on digital capabilities to support family links and enhance rehabilitation goals and objectives. As part of its response to the pandemic the Scottish Prison Service took steps to extend the operation of the "E-mail a Prisoner" scheme so that individuals in custody were able to both receive and reply to emails. As part of its wider Digital Strategy, the Scottish Prison Service is undertaking work to look at what is required across the prison estate in relation to fixed point in-cell telephony. A specification is being developed that will inform the costings, resource requirements and procurement processes. This is part of the wider SPS Digital Strategy for a longer term solution for in-cell communication.

Finally, you asked for details of the review of these measures and their impact. As I indicated to the Committee on 12 January, we have not planned a formal review of the new processes but after 3 months of operation we should be in a better position to assess progress. We will then update the Committee.

Keith Brown