Reintegration

The Parole Board (Scotland) Amendment Rules 2021

On 12 January 2021 secondary legislation “to improve Scotland’s parole system, providing greater transparency for victims, relatives and the public” were introduced to Parliament. The report on the Transforming Parole consultation had promised actions to "help victims, support prisoners and assist the Parole Board to become more open, visible and transparent", however, only actions relating to victims have been included. One of our Committee Members, Dr. Katrina Morrison attended the latest meeting of the Transforming Parole Implementation Group on our behalf, where it was clear that a lot of consultation with victims’ groups had taken place recently, but that this process had not been mirrored by similar opportunities for high level Government meetings for those seeking parole. This is something we intend to continue to question.

Disclosure (Scotland) Act

On 10th June 2020 the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill was passed, with the Disclosure (Scotland) Act  receiving Royal Assent on 14th July 2020. We were very supportive of legislation which reduced the barriers to employment for those people with convictions and in both written and oral evidence had argued that a more individualised approach could be taken to both adults and children. Much of the debate around the Bill's passing was concerned with what constituted 'other relevant information' and how the legislation could work alongside both Management of Offenders and the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility statutes. As is often the case, we were pleased with the direction of travel taken here, but would like to have seen a more nuanced line and consistently proportionate approach. 

Disclosure (Scotland) Bill Report

On 17 December, the Education and Skills Committee published its Stage 1 Report on the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill. The Stage 1 debate took place on 16 January 2020 and it was passed with broad support from all parties, although acknowledging that there was still a lot of work to do at Stage 2, given the importance and complexity of the area.

Most of this work will be around: a) amendment/s to ensure that no-one will have to self-disclose a childhood conviction that would not be disclosed by the state b) requirement for accompanying guiding principles or criteria c) clarification of how it fits with other legislation e.g. Management of Offenders Bill and Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility d) what constitutes other "relevant" information, and clarification of the difference between it and information which "ought" to be disclosed. 

Education and Skills Committee Stage 1 Report

HLS Written Evidence

HLS Oral Evidence

Evidence to Education and Skills Committee: Disclosure (Scotland) Bill

On 6 November 2019, one of our Committee Members, Dr. Beth Weaver, gave oral evidence on our behalf to the Education and Skills Committee on the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill.  Her evidence focused on why individualised and structured discretionary models of disclosure could not be applied to adult, as well as, childhood convictions. She argued that the onus should not be on the individual to apply to have convictions removed and that no fee should be incurred for this. The issue of other relevant information (ORI) was deemed to be key and should only be disclosed when proportionate, balancing public protection against individuals' rights. With this in mind, she urged a need for legal clarification on what information "is" or "ought" to be relevant, highlighting the need for universal guiding principles to accompany the Bill.

Oral Evidence to Education and Skills Committee

Throughcare Service Provision Announcement

Following the news of July 2019 that the Scottish Prison Service planned to temporarily suspend its Throughcare service due to staffing pressures linked to the rising prison population, it was announced on 25 September 2019, that the 'New Routes' and 'Shine' partnerships led by the Wise Group and Sacro respectively, would make support available for more prisoners released from short term sentences of up to four years. 

The Throughcare service previously provided by SPS had been widely praised. We support the reintroduction of this vital service, but lament the need for the redeployment of the 42 Throughcare Support Officers to front-line duties as a result of the increasingly high prison population and rates of absence amongst SPS prison staff.

Reintroduction of Throughcare Support Service

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