Source · SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman)

Scottish Prison Service

SPSO (Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Partly Upheld Reference 201105501 Sector Prisons Category work (in prison) Decided 01 September 2012

View Scottish Prison Service scorecard

Full decision

Summary

Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained that the prison unreasonably failed to provide him with meaningful work. In particular, he felt he had not been given a job because of his race. Mr C also complained that the prison failed to investigate and respond to his complaint appropriately.

In investigating Mr C's complaint, the prison told us Mr C had not applied for any jobs. Because of that, and in the absence of any supporting evidence from Mr C to show that he did apply for jobs, we did not uphold this part of his complaint. The prison also confirmed that when they received Mr C’s complaint, the race relations manager was asked to investigate his complaint because Mr C's complaint contained an allegation of racial discrimination. We were satisfied the prison took proper and appropriate steps to investigate. However, in replying to Mr C, the prison did not specifically respond to everything he complained about. We, therefore, upheld this aspect of his complaint. We had no recommendations to make as we were satisfied that the Scottish Prison Service were taking steps to improve complaints handling.

Related reading

View Decision Report 201105501 as a PDF (11.24 KB) Updated: March 13, 2018

View original on SPSO (Scottish Publ… website

Other decisions involving Scottish Prison Service

Reference Date Summary Outcome
202412046 01 Feb 2026 C complained that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to follow the appropriate procedure after they removed C from association … Upheld
202401074 01 Nov 2025 C complained that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that they had prompt access … Upheld
202303295 01 Mar 2025 C complained that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to appropriately investigate their lost property claim. C submitted a claim … Upheld
202006807 01 Sep 2022 C complained about the handing of their Internal Case Management (ICM) case conference. C was unhappy that the Scottish Prison … Partly Upheld
202001300 01 Sep 2022 Ms C provided her express consent for her pronouns to be used for this publication. Ms C complained about matters … Partly Upheld
View all decisions for this organisation