This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Prison escort contract extended
19/07/2004
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson today welcomed the
announcement by the Scottish Prison Service that their
prison escort and court custody contract with Reliance
Custodial Services would roll-out to Dumfries and Galloway
later this week.
The Minister said that she had received a formal
assurance from Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the SPS,
that Reliance is ready to deliver the contract in
south-west Scotland while maintaining the quality of
service now being offered across the first phase of courts
in and around Glasgow.
However, she stressed that similar assurances would have
to be delivered at each and every stage before the service
was extended to cover the entire Scottish court system.
Ms Jamieson said:
"I made clear to Parliament that no further roll-out of
the prisoner escorting contract would take place until SPS
had conducted a formal assessment of Reliance's readiness
to proceed, and other partner agencies like the courts,
fiscals and police gave formal assurances of their
readiness to proceed alongside Reliance.
"Those assurances are now in place in relation to the
courts in Dumfries and Galloway. I want to welcome this
small, but important, step forward.
"The vast majority of prisoners are being delivered to
the courts on time in the first phase, and procedures
within the courts are improving and developing.
"The decision to extend the contract to Dumfries and
Galloway cannot, and must not, impact on that good
performance in Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton and other first
phase courts. That was one key factor in the Scottish
Prison Service's assessment of readiness - and it will be
one of a number of tests that I expect to be applied in
each and every phase of this roll-out.
"Reliance staff are in their third week of familiarising
themselves with courts within the Dumfries and Galloway
area. The importance of on-the-job shadowing to complement
the intensive training programme undertaken by Reliance
staff is just one of the lessons taken on board from
experiences so far.
"Reliance is clear that they have the right people and
preparations in place to ensure a smooth transition when
the service goes live later this week. But there is
absolutely no room for complacency and I expect SPS to
monitor progress very closely.
"The level of escorting in Dumfries and Galloway may
only amount to a small fraction of the business in the busy
courts around Glasgow, but I accept that this is a
significant milestone. An expansion that will take us one
further step towards the real goal of this important reform
- to free up many more police and prison staff for
frontline duties.
"That's happened in the prison service, it's now
starting to happen with Strathclyde Police, and I hope that
as this latest phase is established, there will be similar
benefits in policing for the people of Dumfries and
Galloway.
"After very real and very serious problems in the early
weeks, sustained progress has been made in stepping up the
performance of the contract in the area covered by the
first phase.
"No service can be entirely error-free and it is clear
that some of those problems stem from deep-rooted and
long-standing issues within our courts that will require
much more far-reaching reforms.
"Nonetheless, we are still a long way from establishing
the degree of public trust and respect in this escorting
service that we all want to see.
"Earning that trust will require Reliance and their
public sector partners to consistently deliver the
much-improved performance we have seen in recent weeks.
Modern systems, good communications, well-trained staff and
old-fashioned hard work - not just in one part of the
country but in each and every part of the country."