Lack of scrutiny of prison healthcare standards ‘a national disgrace’, MSPs told

Healthcare in Scotland’s prisons is a “national disgrace”, a Holyrood committee has heard.

Gill Imery has been chairwoman of the Deaths in Prison Custody Action Group (DPCAG) since 2022, following a review published the year before into deaths in custody.

During an appearance before the Criminal Justice Committee at Holyrood on Wednesday, Ms Imery questioned the quality of healthcare offered to prisoners in Scotland.

Care in the prison estate is provided by the NHS.

Between 2012 and 2022, more than half of prison deaths were classed as being caused by disease or natural causes, Ms Imery said, but she added: “I do caution about this acceptance about the number of people succumbing to disease and illness in prison, because I think there needs to be greater scrutiny on the quality and availability of healthcare available to people within the prison estate and also the availability of resources, not least in the prison escort capacity in order to take people out of an establishment and to access appointments and treatment.

“The lack of scrutiny of the availability and the quality of healthcare across the prison estate is a national disgrace.

“There really is very little scrutiny applied to what sort of healthcare is provided to people, some who already have complex needs.

“In the care of the state, people should be accessing better healthcare than they would in the community, because they are literally a captive audience for health interventions, and that does not appear to be happening.”

Ms Imery said the issue had been discussed within the action group and the National Prison Care Network is “very motivated” to ensure care is more consistent across prisons, but health boards “don’t necessarily wholly embrace the priority that should be given to members of the community from every health board who could find themselves in prison”.

She added: “That network, no matter how hardworking and well-meaning, it does not have a mandate to make health boards take on their responsibility for healthcare provision within prisons.”

Ms Imery – a former HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary – called for Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) to increase its scrutiny of prison healthcare.

“HIS I think, should be looking much more regularly at the quality and availability of healthcare within prisons,” she said.

“They do participate in the joint inspections that are led by the prison inspectorate, but those are only two or three establishments a year.”