Report Summary
When a person is arrested by the police, they are usually taken to a custody suite where they are detained. Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) are members of the local community who visit these individuals to ensure their care, welfare, rights and entitlements and dignity are upheld. They speak with them whilst they are in their cell and provide valuable oversight on how that person has been treated and the conditions of the detention.
This report provides a summary of the oversight activities conducted by the ICVs which is facilitated by Independent Custody Visiting Scotland (ICVS).
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ICVS Q3 in numbers
• A total of 256 visits to custody centres were attempted.
• 1094 persons were in custody at the time of these visits.
• 45% of those in custody at the time of the visit were offered to speak to a custody visitor (92 were female and 394 male, 6 were older children and 1 was a younger child).
• 7 visits had to be abandoned, 2 of which were carried out via telephone and 5 were face to face. ICVS did not receive any advance notice that one centre had been closed and at other centres visits were abandoned due to staff shortage and where centres were too busy and could be more than 40 minute delay before they could give access.
• 4 visits were reported as unsatisfactory. 3 of these relate to visits being abandoned following unsuccessful calls being made to try get access to the custody suite. The other visit did not go ahead due to the custody suite experiencing an extremely busy period and the ICV felt staff and officers were under pressure.
• 238 (93%) of visits were reported by ICVs as being successful.
• 252 (98%) of these visits ICVs recorded/commented on positive feedback regarding custody staff/ officers.
• 1 Legalised Police Cell (LPC) activation was reported and recorded.
