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

SPS hold our serving staff and prospective staff to the highest of standards. While the vast majority of our staff adhere to the highest standards of conduct, SPS continue to be vigilant to any potential corruption concerns within our establishments. Maintaining the safety and security of Scotland’s prisons is and remains an absolute priority.

The following table sets out the number of prospective or serving employees who have been removed, dismissed or prevented from taking up post due to security concerns.

SPS is only in a position to provide full year data from 2022 due to changes in reporting and recording processes.

The Scottish Government does not regard it as appropriate to engage in public comment in respect of live court proceedings.

The Scottish Government does not regard it as appropriate to engage in public comment in respect of live court proceedings.

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

SPS hold our serving staff and prospective staff to the highest of standards. While the vast majority of our staff adhere to the highest standards of conduct, SPS continue to be vigilant to any potential corruption concerns within our establishments. Maintaining the safety and security of Scotland’s prisons is and remains an absolute priority.

The below table sets out the number of prospective employees who have failed pre-employment checks in each of the last 5 full years across all SPS job roles.

The First Minister was approached by members of For Women Scotland while attending an International Women’s Day event on Saturday 8 March 2025. In conversation, it was proposed by a representative of For Women Scotland that a meeting take place with the First Minister after the UK Supreme Court had reached a decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. The Supreme Court published its judgment on 16 April and I, as the Cabinet Secretary with portfolio responsibility for equality, and the Minister for Equalities, met For Women Scotland on 22 May 2025.

No meeting has taken place between the First Minister and For Women Scotland since then, and we would not consider a meeting to be appropriate due to the live legal proceedings between For Women Scotland and the Scottish Ministers.

Every area of government which is or may be affected by the Supreme Court judgment is reviewing policies, guidance and legislation. This action is co-ordinated by the Working Group on the Supreme Court Judgment, convened by the Permanent Secretary, to ensure a cross-government approach and understanding is taken to this complex area of work.

The Scottish Government has been taking forward the detailed work that is necessary as a consequence of the ruling. Since the judgment, we have:

• Engaged with Health Boards on the requirement to implement the Supreme Court judgment in line with their own legal advice. On 30 September, the Director of Health Workforce wrote to Health Boards to reinforce the importance of complying with the law, and the Supreme Court judgment implemented. Application of the law following the Supreme Court ruling remains a matter for Boards, in accordance with their own legal advice.
• Published revised Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools Guidance, while recognising that the EHRC are also reviewing Technical Guidance for schools;
• Advanced joint work with Police Scotland, with a public consultation on the Stop and Search Code of Practice scheduled before the end of this year.
• There have been no changes to prisons guidance.

We have also:

• Updated our guidance for the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.
• Amended the public appointments recruitment process for public bodies subject to the Act, now collating and using biological sex at birth data to apply the Act.
• Moved to an interim Trans and Non-Binary Inclusion Policy, removing a line regarding facilities use, while we develop new policy and guidance in consultation with trade unions.
• Conducted an initial review of facilities across the SG estate with a more detailed review now underway to ensure our provision meets the needs of staff and legal requirements.

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

The SPS Policy for the Management of Transgender People in Custody protects the rights and welfare of transgender people living in Scotland’s prisons in a way which promotes the safety of all people in custody.

When placing a transgender person within our estate, we adopt an individualised approach to ensure the safety of everyone in our care by assessing and managing identified known risk.

There is a total of 21 transgender people in custody representing 0.3% of the total prison population. As a public body we must uphold our statutory obligation to ensure everyone in our care has their personal information protected. Given these small numbers, we are unable to provide any further disaggregation of this data due to potential risk of identification of individuals.

SPS also aim to publish prison numbers and relevant data on a quarterly basis, the last of which can be found

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

SPS hold our serving staff and prospective staff to the highest of standards.

In accordance with relevant legislation, including UK GDPR and UK Employment Law, SPS already undertakes a broad range of suitability and vetting checks on those who apply to work for SPS. These include right to work in the UK, criminal conviction checks and a range of vetting procedures which are undertaken against SPS systems and information sources to assess suitability for employment.

SPS’s pre-employment checks exceed the minimum requirements under the UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standards, which set the standards for employment within the UK Civil Service.

SPS continually assesses the suitability of its recruitment practices to identify and respond to emerging risks. Where necessary, steps are taken to mitigate these as part of our commitment to maintaining the safety and security of our prisons.

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

Whilst SPS do not require prison officer applicants to complete a specific English language proficiency test as part of its recruitment process; verbal, written and comprehension skills are tested thoroughly throughout this operational recruitment process.

All applicants must successfully undergo and pass a comprehensive period of testing which includes a situational judgement test, cognitive ability test, a group and written exercise (for Residential Officer applicants only), and then finally a values-based job interview.

All offers of employment will however be subject to successful completion of all pre-employment checks, which include enhanced disclosure and right to work in the UK checks.