Slopping out payments could cost taxpayers £44m

THE amount of cash earmarked by prison chiefs for compensation payments to inmates forced to slop out has risen to £44 million.

Scottish Prison Service bosses have increased the amount set aside to deal with claims by 70 per cent in the last year. The SPS made provision for 26m in its 2003-04 accounts to cover expected claims after a landmark legal ruling.

A judge said Robert Napier's human rights were breached at Glasgow's Barlinnie jail where he had to slop out in overcrowded conditions. But the amount set aside has now been raised to 44m following a new estimate of the service's liability arising from cases similar to Napier's, according to the SPS annual report and accounts for 2004-05.

Opposition parties criticised ministers' for redirecting 13m from the SPS budget in December 1999 - a decision mentioned in Lord Bonomy's Napier ruling.

Scots Tory justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said taxpayers were paying "a heavy price for the inexcusable negligence" of Executive ministers. "We must not forget that this was an entirely avoidable fiasco," she said.

SNP shadow justice minister Kenny MacAskill added: "Now we're left with the absurdity of taxpayers funding prisoners and paying lawyers rather than investing in public services."