Possession of a firearm in prison: FOI release

Information requested

All reports, statistics, correspondence, emails, texts and Whatsapp messages regarding the single incidence of ‘possession of a firearm in prison’ in the Recorded Crime in Scotland statistics 2022-23. Should it be the case that no firearm was discovered in a prison, you requested correspondence explaining how this offence found its way into official statistics.

Response

With regards to the first part of your request, we can confirm that no cases of firearm possession within a prison were reported to the police in 2022-23. When the Recorded Crime in Scotland Statistics 2022- 23 were originally published on the 20th June they showed one such case. However Police Scotland identified an administrative error, whereby this crime should have instead been classified as Bringing drugs into a prison. As such no further information is held on any case of firearm possession within a prison in 2022-23. 

For the second part of your request, we have included correspondence from Police Scotland relating to the nature of the above error. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because exemptions under section s.38(1)(b) (personal information)and s.30(c) (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs) of FOISA applies to that information. The s.30(c) exemption applies only to the email addresses of named persons and mailboxes within Police Scotland. 

No further information is held in relation to this request. Having been informed of the classification error, the 2022-23 National Statistics were revised to reflect this and re-published on the 1st July 2023.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

202300363577_Document_1

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