Question reference: S6W-05184
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 December 2021
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Current status: Answered by Keith Brown on 12 January 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether representatives from (a) Scottish Trans Alliance, (b) Stonewall Scotland and (c) any other transgender advocacy group are involved in allocation decisions concerning transgender prisoners, and, if so, what the nature of that involvement is.
Answer
have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
Allocation decisions concerning transgender prisoners are the responsibility of SPS.
To inform decisions, a multi-disciplinary case conferencing approach is adopted, to which a range of case specific partner agencies can be invited based on the specific circumstances of the individual being discussed.
A representative from a transgender organisationmay be included in an individual’s case conference however the person in custody must agree to their participation. If agreement is given, then the transgender organisation representative should have relevant expert transgender-specific equality knowledge, information and perspectives to all aspects of the case conference discussion.