Scottish Labour MP launches bid for 'untouchable' prison bosses to lose immunity from prosecution
The campaign comes after an inquiry into two deaths at a Scottish jail found a “catalogue of failures” in the prison system.
A Scottish Labour MP has put forward plans to strip “untouchable” prison bosses of being shielded from prosecution over suicides in a Scottish young offenders institute.
Blair McDougall, the MP for East Renfrewshire, has tabled a ten minute rule bill in the House of Commons, calling for Crown immunity in UK prison estates to be abolished.
Crown immunity, which has been previously removed from the NHS and police, essentially halts any criminal consequences for the prison service due to failings. Under the current law, the Crown, including the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), cannot be held criminally responsible for deaths in custody.
Both the Scottish Government and the SPS have backed calls to remove the Crown immunity but it would require action at Westminster to do so.
Mr McDougall’s constituents, Linda and Stuart Allan, lost their daughter Katie, 21, when she died in Polmont Young Offenders Institution in 2018.
A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) last year found that Katie’s death and that of 16-year-old William Brown could have been prevented but for a “catalogue of failures” in the prison system.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the MP said: “The problem with prison deaths is UK-wide but these losses are a particular problem in Scotland.
“The loss of young people in prisons is felt especially.”
Mr McDougall pointed to research showing “our prison death rates are akin to those in Azerbaijan” and findings that “Scotland’s suicide rate was more than two and a half times higher than the average and about double that of England and Wales”.
The Labour MP highlighted so-called “ligatures" - anything that could be used to tie something in a way that poses a risk of strangulation or hanging.
He said: “Years after both deaths, nobody in the prison service had thought to remove the doorstops or to replace them with safer, sloping alternatives. Bunk beds had not been removed.
“Nothing for me signifies that institutional lack of care - the failings that someone somewhere should have been held legally responsible for.”
Mr McDougall said that “eventually, the authorities said there was enough evidence to charge the prison service with breaches of the health and safety act”.
He added: “But there was no prosecution…because of Crown immunity.
“The Health and Safety at Work Act places duties on state-run prisons but Crown immunity means they cannot be prosecuted for breaching those duties. If they’d died in a privately-run prison, there would have been prosecutions.”
The MP warned that the Scottish Prison Service is “untouchable because of Crown immunity”.
He added: “An untouchable service remains unaccountable.
“Without legal consequences, prisons across the country appear incapable of learning lessons or making changes. Every day with immunity risks more avoidable deaths.
“If those running our prisons won’t act, and they haven’t, they should lose their protection from legal consequence.”
Mr McDougall’s bill will now move forward through the Westminster legislative system.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: "We recognise the profound responsibility we hold in caring for people during some of the most vulnerable periods of their lives.
"When someone dies in prison custody we know families, and the wider public, rightly expect us to do everything possible to prevent further tragedies.
"We are committed and determined to delivering systemic change, at pace, in a way which will be enduring, transparent, and impactful, and will save many lives in the future."
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