Dear Sue Brookes,

Prison officers who provide information to the media about prisoners in their custody either for financial gain or to inflame public opinion about particular prisoners are committing a criminal offence under the Confidentiality Clause in their Terms of Employment. This being so, I am formally requesting that a full and proper criminal investigation be conducted into such a breach of this Clause as a result of a prison employee at Edinburgh prison providing information to a journalist [Gordon Tate] employed at the Sun newspaper Scotland that resulted in the publication of an article in
that newspaper on the 14th June 2011.

There would appear to be an excessive flow of information from Edinburgh prison to various tabloid newspapers, resulting in regular articles in the News of the World especially, and the nature and content of such articles suggest that the source of the information provided originates from prison staff within the prison itself.

The criminal law is usually vigorously applied within the prison. Prisoners found in possession of such articles as mobile phones,weapons and drugs are routinely prosecuted. Why then are some prison staff apparently aloud to flout the law by selling articles pertaining to prisoners in contravention of this Clause? Were there to be such wide leakage of confidential information from any other government body or organisation the application of the law would be swift and thorough. Is the prison system different in this regard?

Prison governors have a clear and legally defined responsibility to ensure prison staff adhere to the rules of confidentiality in the exercise of their duties. Prison staff who sell stories to the press relating to prisoners in their charge are breaking the law and should be held fully accountable for such behaviour.

When is the governor of Edinburgh prison going to properly investigate clear evidence that members of her staff are regularly profiting information to the press for financial
gain?

John Bowden
June 23rd 2011