Decision Report 201607796

Summary

Mr C complained that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to appropriately handle his request to have his legal agent's phone number added to his prison phone account. He also complained that the SPS failed to respond appropriately to his complaint about this.

Mr C said that he submitted the appropriate form with details of his request but that the SPS did not have any record of having received it. The SPS said that they only became aware of Mr C's request after an officer, who received a complaint from Mr C, called the business support team to notify them. Mr C said the officer who responded to his complaint indicated that he could call his lawyer, and Mr C said he felt this response indicated that any calls made would be confidential. However, the business support team added Mr C's legal agent's phone number to his account, but because the details could not be verified in the normal way, the number was added as allowed but not private. This meant that any calls made by Mr C to his legal agent could be recorded. The SPS said that they told Mr C that the number would only be added as private when sufficient evidence was provided by him to confirm that the phone number was in fact for his legal agent.

We found that the SPS had handled Mr C's request appropriately and in line with the normal process. We were also satisfied that the SPS had responded appropriately to Mr C's complaint. Therefore, we did not uphold his complaints.