Scottish prisons aren’t all inspected the way prisons in England & Wales are. HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) still carries out full inspections at some establishments, rating performance against nine Standards (from Good down to Unacceptable), but for most prisons it now monitors continuously through the year instead, using local volunteer Independent Prison Monitors (IPMs) who report their findings annually rather than through a single inspection visit.
HMIPS’s most recent monitoring report for the Bella Centre covers 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, based on 51 monitoring visits and 99 IPM hours. Monitors found a “stable, well-functioning, and progressive environment” that “continued to deliver a high-quality, person-centred model of custody”, recording no use of force or restrictive interventions anywhere in the year. Weekly food shopping was extended to physical visits to community shops at the end of October 2025, something monitors had recommended back in 2024.
A couple of issues remained: the centre’s safer cell still hadn’t been approved for use since the centre opened in August 2022, although it was never actually needed, and repeated delays in introducing a canteen were described as “bothersome to prisoners” after changes weren’t made as originally communicated. Compressed time limits following early-release decisions also left little preparation time for residents and staff alike.
To read the full report, go to the HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland website or follow the link below:
- IPM Annual Monitoring Report (PDF), HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland, covering 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026