The Government and the Scottish Prison Service recognise the importance of providing a safe and secure environment to live and work in our prisons by adopting a zero-tolerance approach to all violence.

Although the SPS reports an increase in the recovery of weapons in prisons, that is likely to be a result of the positive impact of the mitigations that have been put in place to detect, deter and reduce the availability of contraband across the prison estate. The rise also highlights the professionalism of our prison officers in their ability to identify and manage both risks and threats. Although every act of violence towards staff is absolutely to be condemned—I am sure that we will be united on that—those acts of violence towards staff have reduced by 28 per cent over the past four years.