Section two Focus on detention issues purposeful activity and time out of cell, and the lengthy waiting times for health care appointments and treatment for remand prisoners. HMIPS therefore welcomed the Scottish Government’s exploration of ways to reduce the use of remand, for example, through increased use of electronic monitoring. There is a growing number of older prisoners, those serving longer sentences, remand prisoners and those convicted of sexual offences in Scotland. These factors are likely to continue to place pressure on the size of the Scottish prison population for some time to come. Children in detention Last year’s NPM annual report noted, with particular concern, HMI Prisons’ conclusion, in February 2017, that no establishment it had inspected in England and Wales was safe to hold children. This year, HMI Prisons reported that there were early signs of improvement in safety at a number of establishments. However, joint inspections (by Ofsted, HMI Prisons and CQC) of each of the secure training centres (STCs) found that outcomes were either inadequate or required improvement and the inspection of Oakhill STC raised such serious concerns that an urgent letter was sent by the three organisations to the responsible Minister, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Youth Justice, Victims, Female Offenders and Offender Health (who at that time was Dr Phillip Lee). As in previous years, concerns were raised about the high levels of violence in both STCs and YOIs and it was extremely troubling that HMI Prisons reported that levels of violence in STCs were the highest 11 per head of those held than in any other type of establishment it inspected. The use of force was found to be high across the YOI and STC estate, and while inspectors found that governance of the use of force had generally improved, there were problems, including incidents of disproportionate use of force and failures to wear or turn on body-worn cameras. Repeated concerns were also raised in relation to time out of cell in some YOIs, with many boys on normal location locked up for more than 22 hours a day. At worst, some boys were out of their cell for only half an hour each day. Conditions and regimes for those removed from normal location and placed in dedicated care and separation units were generally poor (except at Parc and Werrington) although use of these units had fallen. The unit at Feltham (which is shared with the adult site) was found to be a wholly unsuitable environment to hold children. HMI Prisons, IMB and LO all continued to find that a number of boys experienced delays in being escorted from court custody to YOIs, faced long journeys and/or arrived too late at night to receive a proper induction. A number of boys also travelled with adults, which compounded delays when adult prisoners were dropped off first.11 The picture in secure children’s homes (SCHs) in England and Wales, which hold children for both criminal justice and welfare purposes, was reported to be better. In England, Ofsted found outcomes in only one SCH to be inadequate and of the remaining 13, only two were judged to be less than good. For detailed findings from Ofsted and HMI Prisons, refer to their inspection reports at http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk and https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/ respectively (accessed 20 November 2018). More information about the findings of Lay Observers can be found in their Annual Report to the Secretary of State for Justice, July 2018 https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/layobservers-prod-storage-nu2yj19yczbd/uploads/2018/07/LayObserver-Annual-Report-17-18.pdf, accessed 8 August 2018. 15