FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
These are some of the most frequently asked
questions about the Scottish Prisons Complaints
Commission:
You can scroll down this page for the answers to
each of these questions, alternatively, click on the
question above that you want to know the answer
to.
Q: Who can
complain to the Commission?
A: All prisoners in Scotland - sentenced, remand,
men, women, adults and young offenders can complain to
the Commission but we cannot accept complaints from a
prisoner's family or friends.
Q: What can a
prisoner complain about?
A: Complaints can be about almost anything to do with
the way the Scottish Prison Service has treated a prisoner.
The most common complaints are about prison discipline
(orderly room decisions), supervision levels and
visits. We cannot accept complaints that relate to
conviction or sentence awarded by the Courts or decisions
relating to parole or life licence; nor can we deal with
complaints relating to medical matters that involve
clinical judgement.
We also cannot become involved in cases
which are the subject of legal proceedings.
For more information about the nature of
complaints received by the Commission click on the
Statisticslink.
Q: When can a
prisoner complain to the Commission?
A: A prisoner with a complaint should first consider
talking to staff on his/her hall and attempt to sort out
the problem informally. If this cannot be done then
the complaint should be made formally on the appropriate
complaints form (CP form).
If the prisoner exhausts the internal system
and is still dissatisfied with the responses received from
SPS staff, he/she can then complain to the Commission.
A prisoner can also complain to the
Commission directly if he/she does not receive a response
back to the complaint within the specified time frame.
Q: How does a
prisoner complain to the Commission?
A: If a prisoner wants the Commission to investigate
a complaint then he/she should send the completed
complaints form to us. It is helpful if he/she also
sends a covering letter but this is not essential.
A prisoner can ask anyone - a member of
staff, a fellow prisoner, relative, friend or legal adviser
- to help him/her fill in the form or write the letter.
But the complaint must come from the
prisoner.
The prison will pay for the postage of any
letters being sent to the Commission and the prisoner can
mark any letters with 'Confidential Access' to ensure that
no one reads the letter before it leaves the prison.
The Commission's address and telephone
number can be found on the
Contactspage.
Q: What happens
once a prisoner has complained to the
Commission?
A: Once we have read a prisoner's complaint we make a
decision about whether or not we are going to investigate
the complaint. We will normally write back to the
prisoner within a few days to let him/her know whether or
not we are accepting the complaint for investigation.
If we are not accepting a complaint, we will
explain the reason for this to the prisoner.
If we accept a complaint we then carry out
an investigation.
Q: How does the
Commission investigate a prisoner's
complaint?
A: The level of investigation and amount of time each
investigation takes varies from case to case. When
carrying out investigations, the Commission has unfettered
access to prisons, prisoners, files, records, security
information and staff.
This means the Commission can view all
paperwork held by a prison on any prisoner.
It also means we can interview prisoners and
prison staff.
When we interview a prisoner it is always
done out of the hearing of prison staff.
Q: What does the
Commission do once it has completed its
investigation into a prisoner's complaint?
A: If we do not find in favour of the prisoner's
complaint we write to him/her explaining why and how we
reached our decision. If we do find in the
prisoner's favour we will often seek to resolve the
complaint at a local level.
This is often achieved as a result of
communication between the Commission and the staff,
managers and governors of the prisons.
Again, we write to the prisoner concerned
explaining this.
In cases where we have found in favour of
the complainant the decision may require the Commissioner
to make a formal recommendation to the Chief Executive of
the Scottish Prison Service.
This is the Commissioner's ultimate power
and the Chief Executive must provide a response within 28
days.
The prisoner is kept informed of any
recommendations made and of the outcome of these.
Q: How does the
Commission decide whether or not it agrees with a
prisoner's complaint?
A: The Commission exists to provide an independent
view of prisoners' complaints. Once we receive a
complaint from a prisoner we gather all the relevant
evidence and then make a determination whether or not the
prisoner has been treated in accordance with the Prison
Rules, SPS policy and the duty of fairness.
The complainant is informed of the reasons
for any decision made by the Commission.