Scottish Prison Service Snapshot
SPS Mission: "Providing services that help to transform the lives of people in our care so they can fulfil their potential and become responsible citizens."
SPS Vision: "Helping to build a safer Scotland - Unlocking Potential - Transforming Lives."
SPS Vision: "Helping to build a safer Scotland - Unlocking Potential - Transforming Lives."
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. There are currently seventeen operational prisons located across Scotland: fifteen directly operated by SPS and two operated by private sector operators under contract to SPS (although one of these, HMP Kilmarnock, will move back into public operation in 2024). We directly employ around 4,600 staff.
The SPS is responsible for those who are committed to our care by the Courts and are accountable to Scottish Parliament for the delivery of custodial care in accordance with The Prisons and Young Offenders Institution (Scotland) Rules 2011. Our operating context is dynamic, demand-led, and extremely complex. Prisons are small communities, which operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our prisons are also the working environment for our staff and as such, there are a range of regulatory and legal requirements that must be met. This means we must be agile to be able to respond to competing demands whilst maintaining our longer-term strategic direction.
The impact of our work is also felt beyond the prison walls. SPS works with multiple partner agencies, including third sector organisations, to keep the public safe and to support people to live crime-free lives. We also manage the contract for the Scotland-wide Court Custody and Prisoner Escorting Service for the provision of safe and secure transport for those in custody to and from courts, and appointments on behalf of multi-agency justice partners.
As a large public sector organisation, the Scottish Prison Service requires a great variety of different skillsets and abilities in order to function. Within our prison establishments, Headquarters in Edinburgh and our training college at Polmont, we have a wide variety of business functions that support our Mission of creating a safer Scotland. While Prison Officers are directly responsible for the security and rehabilitation of prisoners, their work requires support and facilitation from a number of other activities and business functions – all of which require the work of skilled and committed people.
The SPS is responsible for those who are committed to our care by the Courts and are accountable to Scottish Parliament for the delivery of custodial care in accordance with The Prisons and Young Offenders Institution (Scotland) Rules 2011. Our operating context is dynamic, demand-led, and extremely complex. Prisons are small communities, which operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our prisons are also the working environment for our staff and as such, there are a range of regulatory and legal requirements that must be met. This means we must be agile to be able to respond to competing demands whilst maintaining our longer-term strategic direction.
The impact of our work is also felt beyond the prison walls. SPS works with multiple partner agencies, including third sector organisations, to keep the public safe and to support people to live crime-free lives. We also manage the contract for the Scotland-wide Court Custody and Prisoner Escorting Service for the provision of safe and secure transport for those in custody to and from courts, and appointments on behalf of multi-agency justice partners.
As a large public sector organisation, the Scottish Prison Service requires a great variety of different skillsets and abilities in order to function. Within our prison establishments, Headquarters in Edinburgh and our training college at Polmont, we have a wide variety of business functions that support our Mission of creating a safer Scotland. While Prison Officers are directly responsible for the security and rehabilitation of prisoners, their work requires support and facilitation from a number of other activities and business functions – all of which require the work of skilled and committed people.
