Question reference: S5W-29464
- Asked by: Mary Fee, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 28 May 2020
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 June 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered rolling out virtual prison visits in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, when it expects these to commence.
Answer
I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:
Work on the provision of ‘virtual visits’ across the entire Scottish prison estate has been underway since 24 April 2020. SPS has signed a short term contract with a private service provider to deliver a managed service via a web based portal and 3 priority pilot test sites have been identified at HMP&YOI Cornton Vale, HMYOI Polmont and HMP Shotts. The system will ‘go live’ from 15 June. The first three sites to go live will be HMPYOI Cornton Vale, HMPYOI Polmont and HMP Shotts. The system will then be rolled out across the prison estate and it is anticipated that all sites will be operational by the end of the month.