Scottish Executive loses slopping-out case
The Scottish Executive is facing a multi-million pound bill for compensation from prison inmates made to slop-out.
It today lost an appeal against compensation granted to a convicted armed robber who claimed that slopping out at Barlinnie Prison caused an outbreak of eczema. He claimed that the practice breached his human rights and was awarded £2,450 in compensation.
Scottish ministers appealed against the original order, claiming that the standard of proof used for cases of an alleged breach of the European Convention on Human Rights should be “beyond reasonable doubt” – the criminal standard – rather than the civil litigation test “balance of probabilities”.
This argument was rejected on Thursday by the Court of Session.
Nearly 1,000 current or former inmates are now believed to be considering compensation claims. The Executive though says that the original case was not a test case, and further cases will be decided on an individual basis.
The situation has caused a political storm in Scotland, with the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party pointing to the original judgement, which suggested that the £13 million reallocated from the Scottish Prison Service budget in 1999 could have been used to end slopping out in all of Scotland’s jails.
Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie said: “This could all have been dealt with at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time if the Executive had just taken action when it was required.
“Now we are facing a bill of at least £162 million, as a recent ruling has stated that cases can be heard dating back to 1999. I dread to think how much the eventual cost for the hard-working, law-abiding taxpayer is going to be.
“Ludicrous amounts of money will now be doled out to convicted criminals rather than being spent putting more police on our streets or improving our public services.”
SNP justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill, said: “The slopping-out case has been a fiasco from start to finish.”
He added: “Ministers were fully aware of the state of Scotland’s jails. Funds were available but they chose to ignore the problem and after this ruling I suspect we will be faced with even more claims and no doubt more payouts. A short term Executive saving has resulted in a long term public cost.”
