Pressure on Kenny MacAskill over prison visitors

He was criticised by opposition parties for suggesting plans to replace the system, which has been in use since the Victorian age, with a new advocacy service.

Labour justice spokesman Lewis Macdonald said community-based bodies were best placed for a monitoring role.

Speaking before the annual conference of Association of Visiting Committees in Stirling, Mr Macdonald said: “It is time he recognised that all his plans are fatally flawed by his insistence on replacing local prison visiting committees with a professionalised structure under centralised controls.

“He envisages replacing around 240 lay monitors with three or perhaps four paid staff. Nobody outside the government’s own payroll has supported any of his monitoring proposals so far. That is why Kenny MacAskill has been forced to ask Professor Andrew Coyle to review the latest proposals.

“What Scotland needs is independent, effective and robust monitoring of prisons which matches the highest international standards. I am calling on Kenny MacAskill to give Professor Coyle the freedom to suggest a different way forward.”

In a debate at Holyrood earlier this year, Mr MacAskill was told the committees were useful to prisoners, could help identify suicide risks and offered a “unique” service.