Further Detail

During the course of 2022, HMICS and HIS collaborated on a baseline review of the provision of healthcare services to police custody centres across Scotland. A report outlining the findings and recommendations was published in January 2023. The learning from the review has been used to support HIS to develop an interim framework to inspect healthcare services within police custody, and for the scrutiny partners to devise a methodology for the joint inspection of police custody centres.

As part of this overarching review it was agreed that HMICS and HIS would undertake two joint custody inspections in order to continue to develop inspection methodology and to complete the inspection framework. The primary custody centres in Lanarkshire were selected for initial inspection, a report on which was published in April 2023 (see agenda item 4.5). The second of these, and the subject of this paper, was undertaken in Tayside with a focus on the primary custody centre in Dundee.

The report provides a detailed analysis of the provision of healthcare at the custody centre and outlines information relevant to the efficiency and effectiveness of custody centre operations. It makes recommendations for both Police Scotland and the Health and Social Care Partnership responsible for the provision of healthcare at the custody centre.

The report outlines key findings that describe positive practice that was found during the inspection and makes eight recommendations that aim to improve custody services and the provision of healthcare in order to achieve better outcomes for people in police custody.