On 2 November 2022 a full inspection report of HMP Shotts from May 2022 was published. Areas of concern included: delays in progression; insufficient pre-release preparation; lack of stability in senior management positions; poor rating of patient care; staff shortages; and a high incidence of substance related issues.

For the first time it included a pilot pre-inspection survey with prisoners, which included some concerning findings e.g. 46% of respondents reported having witnessed staff abusing, threatening, bullying or assaulting another prisoner in the prison; 77% of respondents reported that the complaints system worked ‘quite’ or ‘very’ badly; and 49% of respondents did not know how contact an Independent Prison Monitor (IPM).

On 28 April 2022, the Mental Welfare Commission published a themed visit report entitled ‘Mental Health Support in Scotland’s Prisons 2021: Under-Served and Under-Resourced’. It advised that little had changed in relation to the outcome for prisoners’ mental health since the last themed visit in 2011 and that passing responsibility from SPS to NHS had offered no discernible improvements. It reiterated that seriously and acutely mentally ill people were still being housed in prisons instead of in hospital-based care.