Professor Angela O'Hagan

The letter follows the publication on 2 July of a report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which examined conditions during an unannounced visit to six prisons and five police custody facilities in June 2025. It was the committee’s third visit to Scotland in seven years.

The SHRC said the CPT’s findings echoed concerns it has raised repeatedly over more than a decade, including prison overcrowding, prolonged cell confinement, segregation, deaths in custody and the use of restraint in secure care.

Among the issues highlighted were prisoners sharing cells smaller than the CPT’s minimum standards, some inmates spending up to 23 hours a day locked in their cells, and a lack of round-the-clock medical staff in prisons. The commission also pointed to the committee’s concerns about increasing deaths in custody and its renewed call for reform of the Fatal Accident Inquiry system.

The CPT also found a high use of restraint in one secure care setting for children, where children were observed with fresh injuries.

The commission said the findings reflected those of its 2024 report, Review, Recommend, Repeat, produced with the UK National Preventive Mechanism, which found that 83 per cent of recommendations made by international human rights bodies over the previous decade had seen little or no meaningful progress.

Professor Angela O’Hagan, chair of the SHRC, said: “The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture has now visited Scotland three times in seven years and is raising the same concerns. Behind these report findings are people in the total control of the State, relying on it to meet their most basic human rights.

“In 2024 we evidenced that 83 per cent of recommendations from international human rights bodies remained unaddressed. This visit shows why that matters and warm words on human rights must be matched by urgent, concrete action. The Scottish Government must now move from acceptance to action.”