Prisoners (HIV) (Hansard, 27 June 1995)

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

[holding answer 14 June 1995]: The subject of the questions relates to matters undertaken by the Scottish Prison Service. I have asked its chief executive, Mr. E. W. Frizzell, to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from E. W. Frizzell to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 27 June 1995: Lord James Douglas-Hamilton has asked me to reply to your questions about the number of prisoners who have been infected with HIV whilst in prison in Scotland; how many cases of HIV and AIDS have been reported in Scottish prisons for each year since 1986; and how many inmates are currently HIV positive or have AIDS in prisons in Scotland. The only known incidence of HIV transmission inside a Scottish prison occurred at Glenochil in 1993. A group of prisoners. including a number who were HIV positive, shared syringes and needles to inject drugs. Evidence gathered during the medical response to an outbreak of acute, clinical Hepatitis B and HIV, which resulted from this reckless behaviour, indicated that 8 prisoners had become infected with the HIV virus whilst in Glenochil. Information is not available centrally on how many prisoners had HIV or AIDS in each year since 1986. In 1989, however, the number of prisoners identified as being HIV positive averaged 90. In December 1994, 56 prisoners were known to be HIV positive but not all prisoners will be aware of their HIV status or will choose to disclose it. Voluntary anonymous saliva tests were carried out in a number of prisons between 1991 and 1995 in order to assess the extent of HIV infection. The results are given in the enclosed table.

607W

Screening prisoners for HIV +: Results of voluntary anonymous saliva tests
Year	1991	1992	1992	1993	1994	1994	1994	1995	1995
Prison	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	Polmont YOI	Glenochil	Glenochil	Glenochil YOI	Barlinnie	Perth	Cornton Vale
Prisoners taking part	363	236	421	227	296	162	978	304	136
HIV +	17	8	0	12	7	0	10	6	2
Percentage HIV +	5	3	0	3	2	0	1	2	1