Company fined £350,000 for thousands of late deliveries since taking over Scottish prisoner transport

Private security firm G4S has been fined £350,000 by the Scottish Government for late deliveries of prisoners to courts, new figures show.

The fines have been levied for delivering inmates late on 21,735 separate occasions since taking over the contract in January this year.

The figures were revealed by the Scottish Government in response to written questions in the country’s parliament.

Delays in prisoners arriving at courts can lead to wasted time for officers if they have been required to attend court for a hearing.

Brian Docherty, Chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said delayed prisoner transport was only one of the causes of this problem.

He said: “There are different reasons, including court oversight and sometimes the wrong information is posted (on what is happening in court) or the prisoner not being brought from the court to the prison.”

Mr Docherty said the reform of Scottish policing was going to include a comprehensive examination of custody, including prisoner transport, to find improvements. “That will be in partnership with G4S,” he said.

A G4S spokeswoman said the number of late prisoner deliveries had actually fallen by around 40 per cent since the company took over the contract and only one in 990 deliveries resulted in a delay at court.

David Denny, Director of G4S Scotland, said: “We have retrained staff and introduced new procedures. Our client has noted a significant improvement in performance.”

The company won the seven-year contact, which started in January this year, from rival company Reliance. It covers the transport of defendants between courts and police stations and jails.