Decision Report 201503978

Summary

Mr C complained that an agency that provides custody escorting services on behalf of the Scottish Prison Service failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that he could attend his brother's funeral. Mr C missed the funeral service and he complained to us about the agency's failure, and about the failure to fully explain what had gone wrong. During our investigation, the agency explained there was a delay in collecting an additional member of staff required for the special escort. The agency accepted that they could have done a number of things differently on the day in question. They said that they recognised the understandable upset caused to Mr C in missing his brother's funeral and had taken immediate steps to learn from the incident. The agency apologised to Mr C for their error.

We upheld Mr C's complaint. However, we considered that there was nothing further we could recommend that would undo what happened to Mr C. Given that the agency had provided a more comprehensive explanation of what had gone wrong, had taken steps to learn from the complaint and had apologised to Mr C, we made no further recommendations.