FOI request reveals that violent incidents at HMP Edinburgh doubled from 2015 to 2025

The FOI by Lothian List MSP Miles Briggs (Con), revealed that violent incidents at the former Saughton Prison increased by 97 per cent in the past 10 years, up from 142 incidents in 2016/17 to 261 in 2024/25.

In the decade between, the number of violent incidents has fluctuated, rising to 202 in 2017/18, dropping to 174 the next year, before jumping up to 243 incidents in 2019/20. The figure stayed around 140 for the next three years before jumping to 210 in 2023/24 and the high of 261 in the last financial year.

The average population of the prison grew over the same period from 875 to 925, while staff numbers grew by five per cent.

The prison population at HMP Edinburgh stayed around 850-870 from 2015 until 2019 when it hit 914, before dropping to 860-880 until 2024 - when it shot up to 925.

The number of violent incidents at HMP Edinburgh has almost doubled in the past 10 years. | Neil Hanna

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While staff numbers there jumped from 453 in 2015/16 to 478 for the next two financial years, before dropping into the new decade. Staff numbers reached a high for the past 10 years of 479 in 2020/21, dropped to just 442 in 2022/23 at the end of the pandemic, before rising again to 467 in 2023/24, and dropping slightly in the past financial year to 464.

Miles Briggs MSP said: “The increase in the number of violent incidents at HMP Edinburgh in the last decade is shocking, and it reflects a trend of rising violence in our prison estate.

“I worry both for hardworking prison staff members, and vulnerable inmates who are trying to serve their time responsibly.

“It is clear that action needs to be taken to also address increasing levels of drugs and weapons getting into the prison estate and the rapidly changing nature of how these incidents can occur, including with the use of drones.

“SNP Ministers must back prison officers to get tough on rule breakers and start building prisons on-time and on-budget to take pressure off our struggling justice system.”

A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: “We have been managing an extremely high and complex population for more than a year, which continues to place significant pressure on our staff and the time available to them to do the important work in supporting people, building relationships, and aiding rehabilitation.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to violence and support individuals who have been affected by it. Incidents of criminality are reported to Police Scotland.”