Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 September 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many prisoners have had early release into the Edinburgh Eastern constituency in each of the last three years, and what assessment it has made of any pressures placed on local services as a result of this.
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
In the period 2021-2024 there has only been one period of Emergency Release (ER). This took place over 4 tranches during June – July 2024.
SPS have proactively published total numbers released following each tranche. We recently published a summary report which includes breakdown of data at health board and Local Authority level. We are unable to publish data at parliamentary constituency level because some of the data could relate to a small group of individuals, which could lead to inadvertent identification.
This period of ER, saw only those within six months of their original release date released. A range of partnership working took place with local partners to ensure release arrangements were in place for those released under emergency release regulations. SPS did consider the numbers of individuals being released and assessed the impact to local authorities and services to be similar to figures for the 6-month period where these people would be released anyway.