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I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The quote provided was made specifically in relation to HMP Barlinnie, not the wider SPS estate.

On Friday 1 November 2019 HMP Barlinnie was operating at 144% capacity. HMP Barlinnie has been routinely operating significantly above its intended capacity for some time and this has had a notable impact upon the operation of the prison.

Where any prison routinely operates above capacity then this inevitably impacts upon the ability to provide an enhanced regime. HMP Barlinnie’s building design also inhibits open association and in order to ensure the safety of all those in our care, out of cell activity therefore requires more structured delivery than at other prisons.

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture’s (CPT) report highlighted that in other Scottish prisons visited, people held on remand were provided with opportunity for out of cell activity which exceeded two hours per day.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as the responsibility for delivering prisoner healthcare, including GP services, rests with local NHS Boards.

The question S5W-20884 does not relate to data on the hours spent by remand prisoners engaged in purposeful activity.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information and, as stated in the answer to question S5W-20603 on 9 January 2019, hours of purposeful activity is not available broken down by sentence type. Data is not collected in that format by SPS. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

More than £400 million has been invested in the DSSB programme, which has provided access to fibre broadband to over 940,000 premises to date - over 100,000 more premises than originally estimated - with over 90% of those premises capable of accessing download speeds of at least 24 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Higher than anticipated take-up of services has resulted in funding being returned to the DSSB contracts across Scotland - including the recently announced £3 million for the Highlands & Islands contract - extending coverage even further.

As this is a national programme, it is not possible to provide a geographic breakdown of funding. However, to date, 9,983 premises on the Orkney Islands have been supported, and areas such as Holm and Tankerness will benefit from this additional investment.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

There have been no transfers made directly from prisons in Scotland to Rampton Hospital in each of the last 10 years.

However in the last 10 years SPS has worked in partnership with NHS and HMPPS to manage the transfer of two women in our care to a high secure hospital in England; one in 2011 and one in 2014.

I have asked Colin McConnell, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

SPS does not record the number of hours that people in our care spend in their cells.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26135 on 13 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26135 on 13 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-26135 on 13 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Fairer Deliveries For All: An Action Plan sets out eight clear actions designed to tackle longstanding issues surrounding parcel deliveries, with particular regard to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

As part of the Action Plan, the Scottish Government committed to publishing an annual review setting out progress made on each of the actions. It was anticipated that this review would be published in November 2019. However, the Scottish Government has taken the decision to postpone this publication and associated announcements until early 2020 on account of next month’s General Election, and the restrictions that apply to it during the pre-election period. A full update will therefore be published early next year.