NPM report on Scotland’s progress in the prevention of ill-treatment in places of detention

We welcome today’s publication of the report on Scotland’s progress in the prevention of ill-treatment in places of detention.

The report was commissioned by the Scottish subgroup of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), which assesses progress made since the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) visited Scotland in 2018 and 2019, and covers a wide range of issues.

The Commission recently visited HMP Cornton Vale as part of our national themed visit to prisons. We found that there are ongoing challenges, although we were encouraged by some of the progress being made. We have also visited women in other prisons across Scotland to find out about their experiences of mental health care. The outcome of these visits will be published in our report in 2022.

While it is good to see confirmation of improvements by the Scottish Government and others, we note that today’s report picks up the critical issue of women with severe mental ill health who are still not being transferred to a psychiatric ward in the two week maximum transfer period – we agree with our NPM colleagues that this need to happen as a matter of priority.