Decision report 201102068

Summary
Mr C complained that the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) failed to explain the outcome of a risk assessment he had undergone.

Mr C said that he had asked the psychologist who completed the risk assessment for further information, but that she failed to respond. We were, however, unable to find any evidence of this. Mr C told us that a prison officer had subsequently provided him with some limited information about the data used for the risk assessment.

SPS guidance in relation to risk assessments says that they should explain the process and the data that has been used to inform the risk assessment. However, we considered that it was reasonable for them to take the view that if they gave too much information in relation to the type of risk assessment that Mr C had undergone, this could be used to manipulate the answers in future assessments.

In such cases, there is a difficult balance to strike between providing too much and too little information about a risk assessment. In this case, we found no clear, objective evidence to indicate that the prison's actions were unreasonable.

Mr C also complained that a prison officer had acted unreasonably at a meeting with him. He said that the officer had searched his papers and had been intimidating and overly aggressive.

The SPS told us that prison officers were concerned that Mr C had information that prisoners were not allowed to have. The prison rules at that time stated that any item of property belonging to a prisoner may be searched by a prison officer, at any time. The prison officer, therefore, had the authority to search Mr C's belongings. Again there was no clear, objective evidence that the officer had been intimidating or overly aggressive.