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

The table shows the average prison population, design capacity and occupancy rate, per establishment, for the month of August 2020.

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

The SPS understands the challenges faced by those in our care, and their families and friends, as a result of the necessary restrictions across the prison estate and wider justice sector in response to the pandemic.

Recognising the potential impact that these restrictions may have on the physical and mental wellbeing of those in custody, including those on remand, we have worked to ensure support, in a variety of forms, is available.

• Self-help support leaflets and audio files, designed by SPS Psychologists, have been issued to everyone in custody providing information and tools which can be used to maintain a sense of wellbeing.
• Together with NHS Health Boards, we are providing additional in-cell activities and Fife College have provided learning packs and other educational activities. Relaxation and mindfulness exercises are also available on in-cell televisions and radio.
• Prison Chaplains continue to provide pastoral, spiritual and faith-specific care within establishments.
• Throughout the pandemic people in custody have continued to be offered exercise in the open air and recreation time, and we are encouraging participation in more outdoor exercise based activities.
• We have continued to facilitate family contact. In addition to the Email-a-Prisoner and Prisoner Voicemail schemes, an in-cell telephony option has also been provided to everyone in order to allow them to maintain family contact. Each person currently has a free monthly call allowance of 310 minutes per month on their restricted mobile phone.
• We have also facilitated a Virtual Visit service in partnership with Unilink which allows people in custody to engage with family and friends at home. Physical visits have also resumed, although these are currently suspended at HMP Low Moss, Barlinnie and Shotts in light of local restrictions.

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

In line with Scottish Government guidance, work on the construction of the new Women’s National Facility and the Community Custody Units was temporarily suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19.

Following the easing of restrictions, construction of the Women’s National Facility recommenced in June. Site preparation work continues for both Community Custody Units, with construction expected to commence in October.

Throughout the lockdown period, the SPS continued to work with both contractors on design elements and statutory applications in order to minimise the impact on the construction timeline as much as possible.

The SPS is working closely with the contractors to regularly assess timescales and this will continue as we progress through the phases of the Construction re-start Model and the impact beyond the lock-down phases becomes more apparent.

At this time, we anticipate that the construction of the CCUs will be completed early in 2022 and in Spring 2022 for the Women’s National Facility.

The CPS network back office is managed under contract by BP Chargemaster (BPCM).

Over the weekend of 4 September to 7 September there was intermittent loss of communications between charge points and the back office. BPCM had started investigations on Friday 4 th September and devised a new code which they were hopeful would resolve the issue. However on 5 September the back office lost communications with all charge points across Scotland meaning that for a period of approx. 4 hours EV drivers were not able to identify available charge points on the CPS live website map and experienced difficulties in charging their vehicles.

In discussions with BPCM they advised that the cause of this comms failure was an existing database issue exacerbated by an unusually high number of server requests for account info. BPCM has now fixed the database issue which has resolved the situation. The fail safe mode in such an event of this type is that the charge points should revert to a free vend mode, ensuring drivers can still charge their vehicles. It is the responsibility of charge point hosts (predominantly local authorities) that this mode be enabled in the event of a loss of communication with the back office. However, it appears that this may not have happened in all instances. Transport Scotland will investigate this further.

During the duration of this contract, established in 2016, this is the first failure of this type we have experienced on the CPS network. Transport Scotland have instructed BPCM to carry out a thorough investigation and an produce an action plan to mitigate against a repeat of this failure.

Transport Scotland can confirm that the specification for the contract will be published on the Transport Scotland website following contract award. As mentioned the published information will not contain any contractually sensitive information (e.g. price info, tender responses, etc.)

It is anticipated that the Invitation to Tender will be published early in October with the final date for Tender Queries being towards the end of October. Tenders must be submitted by mid-November with a view to evaluating and subsequently awarding the Framework Agreement towards the end of December 2020. The mobilisation period would begin in January 2021 with the new operator fully in place for April 2021. However due to the current climate and unforeseen circumstances these dates may change.

All of the above details and specification for the contract will be published on The Public Contracts Scotland website.

The Islands Green Recovery Programme, announced in the Programme for Government is a new £2 million programme for locally-led green projects designed to help support island communities economic recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This forms part of the £230 million Stimulus Package announced on 16 June to help Scotland’s economy respond to the pandemic.

Please find the link to the recent news release for the recovery programme (13 Sept 2020) here: https://www.gov.scot/news/building-resilience-for-island-communities/

This Government set out its approach in the Stability and Simplicity consultation to provide Scottish farmers, crofters, foresters, rural businesses and rural communities a period of stability, by retaining the majority of CAP schemes until 2024. I was clear after the passing of stage 3 of the Scottish Agriculture bill that LFASS would be one of the schemes continuing in 2021. It is therefore crucial that the UK Government provides a clear statement on future funding and honour the promises made during the 2016 EU referendum so that plans can be progressed for those CAP schemes in 2021.

For the 2020 scheme year LFASS has been retained with payments set to be at 40% (or 25/ha) of the 2018 payment rates and will be paid in spring 2021. Unfortunately we are unable to circumvent EU rules and reinstate payments to 2018 levels for the 2020 scheme year. Around 1,400 farmers and crofters who receive the minimum LFASS payment of £385, are not impacted. In addition, the Upland Uplift part of convergence payments supports farming and crofting in our marginal uplands, hill farms and island areas. Options are being considered for year 2 payments.

Financial support to those farming and crofting in our most fragile and remote areas is a priority for the Scottish Government. It is the intention that LFASS payments will be paid in Spring 2021 to those who submitted an eligible claim earlier this year. I am clear that maintaining business cash flow and providing support into rural areas is vital to help farmers and crofters through the unprecedented and difficult times caused by Covid 19 and the continued uncertainties of Brexit.

At present, we are advising that no more than 20 people should attend a marriage ceremony or civil partnership registration, provided they can be accommodated safely with physical distancing in the chosen venue. Receptions and celebratory events related to a marriage or civil partnership, along with any other celebratory events, remain subject to the restrictions on gatherings in the Health Protection Regulations and in guidance. These will be reviewed again on 10 September.

Our position will continue to be kept under careful review and we will continue to consider ways to permit marriage ceremonies and civil partnership registrations to take place safely. Any further changes to the current limit on numbers will depend on public health advice.