Prisons chief calls for more video use in Scotland

Brigadier Hugh Monro said prisoners sometimes had to travel “extraordinary distances” for court appearances – which could be very brief or may even be cancelled. He argued time and money could be saved if such hearings could be conducted using a video link.

But he said progress in the area had been “slow” and he called for a planned pilot scheme for more remote courts in the Highlands and Islands area to be made a priority.

Brigadier Monro raised the issue in his latest report, into transporting prisoners to and from courts.

He said: “I continue to criticise the minimal use of video courts throughout Scotland, and particularly to those distant courts in the north and south west.

“Inspections of prisons have revealed extraordinary distances being travelled to courts across Scotland.”

The prison inspector has already raised the issue in a report on Scotland’s only all-women jail, Cornton Vale near Stirling, where he said women could have to “travel under escort for pre-trial hearings to distant courts, particularly in the Highlands, and be returned to prison on the same day”.

He added that appearances at court could be “very short indeed or even be cancelled at short notice”.