Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government guidance for transport operators in Scotland was first published on the Transport Scotland website in May and has been reviewed on an on-going basis throughout the pandemic with amendments made at appropriate points. This guidance is applicable to taxi and private-hire operators. The guidance can be found using the following link https://www.transport.gov.scot/coronavirus-covid-19/transport-transition-plan/guidance-for-transport-operators/#overview

In addition, there is separate guidance to support taxi drivers to safely operate produced by the lead Local Authority group of Environmental Health and Trading Standards Officers and published by the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards which can be found using the following link https://www.scotss.org/covid/taxiguidance13august.pdf .

This question relates to operational matters that are the responsibility of the Scottish Court and Tribunals Service (SCTS) corporate body. The question has been passed to the Chief Executive of the SCTS who will reply in writing within 20 days.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The table shows the average prison population, design capacity and occupancy rate, per establishment, for the month of August 2020.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

On Thursday September 2020 there were 7467 people in Scottish prison custody. Of this total:

• 5370 people were accommodated alone in a cell intended to accommodate one person;
• 891 people were accommodated in a cell, or dormitory, intended for more than one person; and
• 1206 people were accommodated with another person in a cell intended for one person.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Purposeful Activity (PA) is monitored and reported via the Prisoner Records System (PR2). PR2 is used by the SPS to record PA attendance across all public sector prisons.

Data is reported by each establishment to SPS Headquarters on a monthly basis. This forms part of the monthly reporting on SPS’ Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). KPI performance is then centrally monitored on a monthly basis by SPS’ Operations Directorate and during bi-annual business reviews undertaken across every Scottish prison. Where any concerns in relation to PA are identified then further support for improvement will be facilitated.

Fife College, SPS’ contracted education provider, report their own monthly hours of educational attendance. This data is then used to verify SPS recording on PR2 and any differences are investigated and reconciled by the establishment.

All of this data and information is then collated and reported on a monthly basis to the Director of Operations, with a summary document provided to all establishments. These figures are then accumulated throughout the reporting year in order to assure their accuracy.

On a bi-annual basis, PA hours is reported to SPS’ Executive Management Group and at the end of the Reporting year, a full verification and assurance process is completed before information on PA hours is reported in SPS’ Annual Report.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS)assess the treatment and care of people in custody against a pre-defined set of 9 Standards, one of which is PA.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS understands the challenges faced by those in our care, and their families and friends, as a result of the necessary restrictions across the prison estate and wider justice sector in response to the pandemic.

Recognising the potential impact that these restrictions may have on the physical and mental wellbeing of those in custody, including those on remand, we have worked to ensure support, in a variety of forms, is available.

• Self-help support leaflets and audio files, designed by SPS Psychologists, have been issued to everyone in custody providing information and tools which can be used to maintain a sense of wellbeing.
• Together with NHS Health Boards, we are providing additional in-cell activities and Fife College have provided learning packs and other educational activities. Relaxation and mindfulness exercises are also available on in-cell televisions and radio.
• Prison Chaplains continue to provide pastoral, spiritual and faith-specific care within establishments.
• Throughout the pandemic people in custody have continued to be offered exercise in the open air and recreation time, and we are encouraging participation in more outdoor exercise based activities.
• We have continued to facilitate family contact. In addition to the Email-a-Prisoner and Prisoner Voicemail schemes, an in-cell telephony option has also been provided to everyone in order to allow them to maintain family contact. Each person currently has a free monthly call allowance of 310 minutes per month on their restricted mobile phone.
• We have also facilitated a Virtual Visit service in partnership with Unilink which allows people in custody to engage with family and friends at home. Physical visits have also resumed, although these are currently suspended at HMP Low Moss, Barlinnie and Shotts in light of local restrictions.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The table provided shows the average number of Purposeful Activity (PA) hours, people in custody engaged in each week, per public sector establishment, by month, between July 2019 and July 2020.

In response to the outbreak of Covid-19, SPS introduced a number of significant restrictions on prison regimes in March 2020. Whilst these restrictions were necessary to protect the health and well-being of all those who live and work in our prisons; they inevitably impacted upon the average number of PA hours that each prison was able to deliver.

HMP Addiewell and Kilmarnock are privately operated prisons and are not required to submit PA hours on a monthly basis. The delivery of PA hours within these establishments is monitored through contractual arrangements with SPS Controllers and Contract Managers ensuring compliance with minimum requirements.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

In line with Scottish Government guidance, work on the construction of the new Women’s National Facility and the Community Custody Units was temporarily suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19.

Following the easing of restrictions, construction of the Women’s National Facility recommenced in June. Site preparation work continues for both Community Custody Units, with construction expected to commence in October.

Throughout the lockdown period, the SPS continued to work with both contractors on design elements and statutory applications in order to minimise the impact on the construction timeline as much as possible.

The SPS is working closely with the contractors to regularly assess timescales and this will continue as we progress through the phases of the Construction re-start Model and the impact beyond the lock-down phases becomes more apparent.

At this time, we anticipate that the construction of the CCUs will be completed early in 2022 and in Spring 2022 for the Women’s National Facility.

The CPS network back office is managed under contract by BP Chargemaster (BPCM).

Over the weekend of 4 September to 7 September there was intermittent loss of communications between charge points and the back office. BPCM had started investigations on Friday 4 th September and devised a new code which they were hopeful would resolve the issue. However on 5 September the back office lost communications with all charge points across Scotland meaning that for a period of approx. 4 hours EV drivers were not able to identify available charge points on the CPS live website map and experienced difficulties in charging their vehicles.

In discussions with BPCM they advised that the cause of this comms failure was an existing database issue exacerbated by an unusually high number of server requests for account info. BPCM has now fixed the database issue which has resolved the situation. The fail safe mode in such an event of this type is that the charge points should revert to a free vend mode, ensuring drivers can still charge their vehicles. It is the responsibility of charge point hosts (predominantly local authorities) that this mode be enabled in the event of a loss of communication with the back office. However, it appears that this may not have happened in all instances. Transport Scotland will investigate this further.

During the duration of this contract, established in 2016, this is the first failure of this type we have experienced on the CPS network. Transport Scotland have instructed BPCM to carry out a thorough investigation and an produce an action plan to mitigate against a repeat of this failure.

Transport Scotland can confirm that the specification for the contract will be published on the Transport Scotland website following contract award. As mentioned the published information will not contain any contractually sensitive information (e.g. price info, tender responses, etc.)

It is anticipated that the Invitation to Tender will be published early in October with the final date for Tender Queries being towards the end of October. Tenders must be submitted by mid-November with a view to evaluating and subsequently awarding the Framework Agreement towards the end of December 2020. The mobilisation period would begin in January 2021 with the new operator fully in place for April 2021. However due to the current climate and unforeseen circumstances these dates may change.

All of the above details and specification for the contract will be published on The Public Contracts Scotland website.