Scotland's Redress Scheme: combined annual report 2023

6.13 Scottish Prison Service

As required under Section 99 of the Redress for Survivors (Historical Child Abuse in Care) (Scotland) Act 2021, please see below our annual report for the reporting period, 8 December 2021 to 7 December 2022, on the wider actions SPS has taken to redress the historical abuse of children:

• Acknowledgement of abuse and provision of an apology – on the 8th December 2021, the SPS published on its external website a letter acknowledging the harm that children experienced whilst in our care and apologised for the suffering that each child endured. A copy of the letter can be found via the following link SPS Committal to Redress Scheme. During the reporting period, SPS has not received any requests from individual survivors of historic child abuse seeking an apology for any harm they experienced or endured whilst in our care. Should we receive any requests we would engage with the Survivor Relations Team within Scottish Government to facilitate this between SPS and the survivor.
• Engagement with those responsible for the management of the Redress Scheme – We have provided advice and assistance to those seeking to access their historical records through engagement with those responsible for management of the Redress Scheme. We have agreed and established a secure means of communication to verify information, in a timely manner, which is provided to the scheme administrators to support survivor’s claims for compensation.
• Subject Access Requests (SAR) – Through SPS’ established SAR process, survivors have been able to obtain access to information held by SPS to support their claims for compensation. They have been able to do this by writing directly to SPS or downloading from our external website a SAR Form. Where a person making a SAR has some form of disability and finds it impossible or unreasonably difficult to make a SAR request in writing, SPS will consider a verbal request.
• Assistance in tracing and reuniting families – SPS recognises the importance of family support for those in our care and provides prisoners with a variety of means to reunite and maintain contact with family. This includes through correspondence, physical and virtual visits, by telephone, the Email-a-Prisoner and Prisoner Voicemail schemes. Although not introduced specifically to support the introduction of the Redress Scheme, SPS has in place processes to assist families in tracing relatives who may be in our care. Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998, SPS are prohibited from confirming whether a person is in SPS custody as this information is considered personal data. To assist families who may wish to trace those in our care we have arrangements in place. Those arrangements allow families to write to individuals c/o SPS Legal Services who will, if the person is in our care, pass the letter on to them but without confirming to the sender whether or not the person is in custody. Therefore providing those in our care, who may have lost contact with family members, to reunite with them if they choose.
• Funding for emotional, psychological or practical support – Those in our custody are able to access a variety of means of emotional, psychological or practical support that is either funded by SPS or provided by local NHS boards, this would include; access to Samaritans services, either via the SPS Listener Scheme or via SPS phones (the Samaritans telephone number can accessed from any SPS mobile, in cell or communal phones); they can self-refer to NHS Mental Health Services; and some SPS establishments are engaging with community partners who provide support to survivors of abuse such as CEA (Committed to Ending Abuse) who are providing support services within HMP & YOI Polmont. SPS is not able to fund services that would provide emotional or psychological support services for those not in the care of SPS. SPS is funded directly by Scottish Ministers to provide prison services and the SPS budget is intended to cover expenditure associated with operating the prison system (both publicly and privately-managed prisons) and the provision of a Court Custody and Prisoner Escorting Service (CCPES) on behalf of Scottish Courts, Police Scotland and the wider justice system. Our budget does not cover the costs of funding the provision of services to persons in the community. In terms of practical support, as detailed above, SPS has processes in place to enable survivors to obtain access to information held by SPS to support their claims for compensation.
• Safeguarding policy and procedures – SPS has a number of policies and procedures that have been implemented to safeguard children in our care or who visit or make contact with a prison or people in our care. Below we have provided an overview of some of the key policies:
  • Vision for young people in custody – the aim of this policy is to use the time the young person spends in custody to enable them to prepare for a positive future. This means providing, in a safe and secure environment, care and experiences, which will support the young person’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing, build their knowledge, skills, employability and promote their successful reintegration to their communities.
  • Think Twice – SPS’ Strategic Approach to Encouraging Respectful Behaviour in Prison – this strategy focuses on identifying and recognising when bullying occurs with a view to dealing appropriately with the behaviour of the person bullying and providing support to the person experiencing the bullying behaviour. The policy aims to: reduce the level of bullying within prisons; ensure that any incidents are investigated and managed appropriately and create a safe, supportive community where people take responsibility for their own actions and understand how their actions affect other people.
  • SPS Child Protection Policy – requires SPS staff to take all reasonable steps to protect from harm and abuse those children and young people in our care, who visit or make contact with a prison or people in our care. The policy provides advice to staff who may become concerned about the welfare of a child or young person during the course of their duty. It advises that staff have a responsibility to act on any concerns they may have. It provides staff with guidance in regards to: what the signs of potential abuse are; their obligations to protect children and young people from harm and abuse and details of the correct reporting procedures they should follow.
• Any other support – During the last reporting year, SPS had been focussed on setting up the practical systems in consultation with the Redress Team to ensure that those seeking to access their historical records are able to do so through engagement with those responsible for management of the Redress Scheme. During this reporting year, SPS will consider how it can demonstrate or highlight to survivors of abuse the ways that the organisation now works to prevent abuse.

We note this redress report will be reviewed and published as part of a combined report as required by Section 99 of The Act.