Derek Adam

In the light of all this I would strongly recommend that the Crown and the prison authorities enter into arrangements or protocols to ensure that, following a death in prison, all relevant CCTV footage is urgently identified, recovered and preserved in the hands of the Crown, such that should any party to the subsequent inquiry, or the Court, wish it to be placed in evidence, it is available for that purpose. Where there is a timeclock on the CCTV, the timings should be tested for accuracy as against an electronic clock, so as to enable them to later be reconciled against other evidence of timing which may emerge.

If the standard manuals do not include training on when and how to use a defibrillator, then SPS should include further training to this effect.

They plainly need to have training sufficient to enable them, in an emergency, to locate a resusciade and to know why and how to use it. If there is ignorance among first aid trained prison officers on those matters - and Mr Smith’s evidence in particular did nothing to inspire confidence about this - then the content and the intensity of the relevant training should be reviewed and upgraded accordingly.

But, and for the reasons discussed above, it is important that prison officers are trained not only how to use these devices, but also how to identify when it may be necessary to do so. A review of the content of the training in the light of the findings of this inquiry would therefore seem appropriate.