Chamber and committees

Under the new monitoring service the monitors will have regular meetings and liaison with the governors and other prison managers and staff.

I wrote to the Chair of the National Preventative Mechanism (NPM), Nick Hardwick on 24 May outlining the proposal for independent monitoring. Officials are liaising with NPM officials on the proposals.

Under the new monitoring service the monitors will visit their allocated prisons no less than once every three weeks.

Applicants are likely to have a background in working in a prison environment, possibly within a prison service, but people with experience in other sectors will not be excluded from applying.

During a visit to a prison the prison monitor must be given free access to every part of the prison and every prisoner within the prison.

The current annual budget of the prison visiting committee system is £70,000. This budget currently sits under the Scottish Prison Service. This budget will be returned to central government to fund the new monitoring service along with an estimated additional cost of approximately £55,556.

The Chief Inspector will be responsible for the appointment of the monitors. Monitors will be paid and the duration of their appointment will be for four years, but with flexibility for an extension when appropriate.

The monitors will access any prison either unannounced or by appointment, at any time. In most cases it will be unannounced.

Yes, the monitors will notify the governor and the Chief Inspector of any circumstances relating to the condition of the prison or treatment of any prisoner or group of prisoners.

It is likely that the Chief Inspector will deploy the monitors to prisons as shown in the following table. This system will also allow monitors to be deployed individually or collectively to prisons where the need is deemed greatest by the Chief Inspector.

Note: *HMP Grampian from 2014.