Decision report 201104125

Summary
Mr C, who is a prisoner, complained that he was not allowed to have two specific electrical items despite having purchased them while in a previous prison establishment and being allowed to use them there.

We obtained a copy of the prison's 'items in use' policy which confirmed that the items were prohibited. Our enquiries also revealed that the policy of Mr C's previous establishment permitted the items and that prison governors have discretion as to which items they allow in their establishment. However, the prison had already acknowledged the discrepancy and offered to reimburse Mr C for the cost of the items. We considered this reasonable and did not uphold the complaint.

We accepted that lack of consistency across the prison estate could be a source of frustation for prisoners. However, as the Scottish Prison Service confirmed that they were currently taking steps towards sourcing a national supplier for electrical goods and developing a uniform policy across the estate, we made no recommendations about this.