RES_2023FAI035
Submitted: 01 November 2023
To the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
1. The Scottish Prison Service (SPS), being a body to whom a recommendation under section
26(1)(b) was addressed, do respond as follows.
2. Recommendation 1 – “That the SPS improve their system of working by making further
provision for ongoing refresher training courses for residential officers at regular intervals, to
continually ensure that all such officers remain fully cognisant of and appreciative of the
necessity of strictly adhering to the said Lock-up Procedures, doing so across the entire prison
estate and not just as local reactions to individual deaths, which improvement might realistically
prevent other deaths in similar circumstances.”
3. Response – SPS will incorporate into Prisoner Officers annual C&R refresher training course,
a new section training on the necessity of adhering to SPS locking and unlocking procedures to
ensure that appropriate steps are taken by Prison Officers to see the face of, and get a verbal
response from all prisoners during these procedures.