On 23 August 2023, the Scottish Government published, ‘The Case for Gendered and Intersectional Approaches to Justice’, an independent report commissioned through its Women in Justice Leadership Panel. It concludes that a gendered approach to supporting women in the criminal justice system could lead to improved legitimisation of the system.

On 21 July 2023 HMIPS published its Thematic Review of Segregation in Scottish Prisons. It was a highly critical report, highlighting a raft of concerns at an individual and systemic level, with some very troubling findings including serious prisoner mistreatment at an unnamed prison. It also covered the issue of a lack of high secure beds for women in Scotland, linking it to the Independent Forensic Mental Health Review’s strong recommendation that this be actioned within 9 months of its 2021 report. SPICe (Scottish Parliament Information Centre) also published a briefing paper on Forensic Mental Health Services in Scotland, reiterating similar points.