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The Scottish Government (SG) is committed to supporting prisoners to secure appropriate housing on release, and to addressing homelessness amongst prisoners and their families. All prisoners who are assessed by local authorities as unintentionally homeless upon liberation are entitled to settled accommodation as a legal right. A wide range of activity to prevent homelessness amongst offenders upon liberation continues to progress across Scotland, with the involvement of local authorities and the Housing Options Hubs.

The SG and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), together with national housing organisations and other stakeholders, are supporting on-going work to develop a consistent and shared approach to housing provision for prisoners across the country, focussing on the coordination and planning of offenders’ housing needs while in custody and on liberation.

SPS staff ascertain each individual’s immediate housing circumstances within 72 hours of entry to prison as part of the core screening process, and make appropriate referrals as necessary to address specific issues.

Links Centres within prisons provide facilities for external organisations such as Job Centre Plus, housing officers, Citizens Advice Bureau and Welfare Rights officials, to offer prisoners access to a range of services that they may require, both during their sentence, and as part of pre-release planning. The Department for Work and Pensions place Job Centre Plus staff in all prisons to assist with access to employment and benefits.

Furthermore, individuals completing sentences under 4 years are offered one-to-one help to support their reintegration back to the community, by the SPS’ Throughcare Support Officers (TSO), and by third sector offender mentoring services

The SPS Prisoner Records System (PR2) does not measure or report on housing or financial difficulties that people in or leaving prison face (although the SPS’ TSO service does record specific data on individuals it supports). The SPS Prisoner Survey is taken every two years, and includes questions about prisoners housing circumstances before and after their sentence. Individuals are also asked if they have accessed services in relation to housing and welfare benefits during their sentence.

The Scottish Government does not hold separate information for offenders as a specific group. Offenders who are not in prison would engage with housing, welfare and benefits services as members of the general population, and their interactions would not be recorded separately.

The responsibility for provision of healthcare to prisoners, including substance misuse and mental health services, in Scotland was transferred from the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to the National Health Service (NHS) on 1st November 2011. The Scottish Government works with and funds NHS Boards and local authorities to ensure they plan and deliver appropriate local services. It is for local NHS Boards to decide how they ensure that their local population, including prisoners, have the highest quality care and treatment.

The Scottish Government, through its strategies on Justice, Policing and Mental Health, wants to capitalise on the many opportunities to develop and improve actions that promote good mental health for people who come into contact with the justice system as a result of their offending behaviour. The Mental Health Strategy 2017-27, contains 3 Actions to support improving the mental health of offenders and prisoners.

A refreshed literacy and numeracy skills profiler was introduced in partnership with Education Scotland; Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework; Fife College and New College Lanarkshire as a key part of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) New Generation Learning and Skills contract that went live on 1 August 2017. Accordingly, the refresh of the profiler has been designed to improve on standardised initial literacy and numeracy screening across the Scottish prison estate.

Prisoners screened as having literacy and/or numeracy needs receive an individual learning feedback and planning meeting from the SPS learning provider (Fife College) and an offer of a place on a programme of learning to support their needs. SPS Learning Centres in each establishments provide dedicated support for such individuals where required in terms of 1:1 or small group work. The learning centres will also, if required, provide relevant information and/or make referrals to other support services such as the NHS.

The Scottish Government does not hold information for offenders as a specific group. Offenders who are not in prison would engage with public services as members of the general population and their interaction would not be recorded separately.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland publish performance information on call handling, including information on discontinued calls, on a monthly basis which can be found at .

The operation of individual Area Control Rooms is a matter for Police Scotland with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function, including the staffing of Area Control Rooms, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function, including the staffing of Area Control Rooms, is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.

Scottish Ministers do not routinely release details of communications with Police Scotland.

This is a matter for the Scottish Police Authority. Ministers expect the Authority to have robust arrangements in place to monitor all aspects of police performance.

The delivery of Police Scotland’s contact, command and control function is an operational matter for the Chief Constable with oversight from the Scottish Police Authority.