Chamber and committees

The profession of offenders is not held on the Scottish Government Court Proceedings Database.

The Scottish Government appreciates that it can be difficult for some former Service personnel to make the transition from military to civilian life. The Scottish Government continues to work with and provide funding to Scottish veterans'' organisations to provide support to ex-Service personnel to help tackle the difficulties and problems they can face to try to avoid coming into conflict with the criminal justice system in the first place.

The Scottish criminal justice system is able to take into account the individual circumstances of all those that it deals with. For example, access to legal advice and disposals and programmes aimed at offenders with specific needs such as treatment for drug addiction. Those who are sentenced to imprisonment are able to access a wide variety of support services.

This information is not held centrally.

Current and ex-service personnel are subject to the law but there are various ways that the justice system takes into account the individual circumstances of those who come before it. For example, accused persons will normally have access to legal advice that will allow them to put relevant information before the court. If a person is convicted, social enquiry reports will highlight relevant factors in the offender''s background, and there are specific disposals and programmes aimed at offenders with specific needs such as treatment for substance misuse or mental health issues.

This information is not held centrally.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

I refer the member to the answer to questions S3W-30114 and S3W-30117 on
14 January 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

There are a wide variety of support services available to ex-service personnel within prison. In addition to the full range of services which are available to the general prison population (e.g. employability, housing, other community based services and financial help), in-reach general welfare support services are available from veterans agencies. These in-reach services have been available for some time and are currently being re-invigorated.

Health and mental health interventions offered by SPS always follow an individualised assessment of need. In the case of ex-service personnel, this will include, where assessed as necessary, the intervention of forensic psychologists and mental health nurses to deliver cognitive behavioural clinical interventions to those diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service does not currently record data specifically regarding the number of ex-service personnel with or who may have post-traumatic stress disorder.

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table shows the total number of prisoners, currently in custody, who are recorded as being ex-service personnel.

Prisoner Forces Service	Number of Prisoners
Air Force	6
Army	107
Navy	8

 

I have asked Willie Pretswell, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) does not centrally record this information. The SPS healthcare records do not record whether a prisoner is ex-service personnel to allow for cross referencing of military career with diagnosis.