Communications with Scottish Prison Service regarding HMP Addiewell: FOI release

Information requested

1. Does the Scottish Government currently have any plans to nationalise HMP Addiewell?

2. HMP Addiewell is currently operated by Sodexo Justice Services and that contract is expected to run until 2034. Has the Scottish Government sought to end that early?

3. If possible, can you share any correspondence between the Scottish Government, the Scottish Prison Service and/or Sodexo Justice Services about nationalising HMP Addiewell? (If possible, can you limit that to the last five years).

4. If possible, can you share any correspondence between the Scottish Government, the Scottish Prison Service and/or Sodexo Justice Services about safety concerns at HMP Addiewell and what action has been taken to tackle them? (If possible, can you limit that to 2023 and 2024).

Response

(1) In response to the first part of your request, the Scottish Government’s longstanding policy is that prisons should be owned and operated by the public sector. The contract to operate HMP Addiewell was awarded in 2006 by a previous administration and will expire in December 2033.

(2) In response to the second part of your request, the contract does not expire until December 2033 and given the significant costs and complexities of the contract, there are no plans to end the contract early. The Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service will take appropriate preparatory actions well in advance of the contract reaching its end point.

(3) In response to the third part of your request, I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in Annex A.

Some of the information you have requested which was found within correspondence with the Scottish Prison Service is available from the Scottish Parliament website, and can be found at the following links:

• Written question and answer: S5W-25521 | Scottish Parliament Website
• Justice Committee - 4 September 2007
• DG Education Communities and Justice.dot (parliament.scot)

s25(1) of FOISA (Information otherwise accessible) exempts information from disclosure where the requester can reasonably obtain the information without making a request for it. It has a different focus from other exemptions. It is not about withholding the information from the public, but recognises that where information is already available to the requester, there is no need to provide an alternative right of access to it through FOISA. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Further exemptions under sections 30(b)(i) and 38(1)(b) of FOISA apply to some of the information you have requested. A description of each of these is provided below, along with our reasoning for applying them:

30(b)(i) and 30(b)(ii) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views) applies to some the information requested. This exemption applies because disclosure would, or would be likely to, inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. This exemption recognises the need for Ministers and officials to have a private space within which to discuss and explore options before the Scottish Government reaches a settled public view. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is a public interest in disclosing information as part of open, transparent and accountable government, and to inform public debate. However, there is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s position until the Government as a whole can adopt a decision that is sound and likely to be effective. This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered, based on the best available advice, so that good policy decisions can be taken. Premature disclosure is likely to undermine the full and frank discussion of issues between Ministers and officials, which in turn will undermine the quality of the decision making process, which would not be in the public interest.

38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

(4) In response to the fourth part of your request, while we do endeavour to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This is due to the volume of information that was identified in the initial searches of our corporate systems. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. It is likely that the most useful way to do this would be to give us an indication of which particular information you are interested in to allow us to undertake a more focussed approach to look for information. You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: Tips for requesters (itspublicknowledge.info)

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400435492 - Information Released - Annex

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