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 Lilias Centre covers 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, based on 57 monitoring visits and 125 IPM hours. Monitors found the centre “operating as a stable, calm, and supportive environment” with “effective leadership and a clear commitment to continuous improvement”. Long-delayed IT for learning, an issue since the centre opened, was finally resolved, and healthcare there was shortlisted for a Nurse of the Year award.
Monitors raised real concerns about strip-searching, which residents described as “distressing and unnecessary” and the report itself calls “retraumatising and degrading” – language the report says sits uneasily with the centre’s trauma-informed approach. Progress on community food shopping, recommended for Lilias the same way it was for the Bella Centre, still hadn’t started by year end, with a phased rollout only agreed for April 2026. Some prisoners had also been given inaccurate information, including about a reduced weekly food budget.
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