Deaths in Custody and their Investigation in Scotland in 2024
source: SCCJR
published: April 2025
Image Credit: Sourced by 4WardEverUK
This publication by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research is the fourth annual monitoring report on deaths in custody in Scotland and their investigation.
It presents information about deaths in:
- prison
- police custody and contact
- migration detention and asylum accommodation
- detention or compulsory order under the Mental Health Act
- children and young people in care
- people with learning disabilities and autistic people living in hospital
Over the most recent year, at least 244 people in Scotland died in one of these settings of state control. This amounts to a total of almost five people dying each week.
The majority of these deaths will have no public investigation. We do not know the names, gender, ages, ethnicities of many nor the circumstances in which they died. Even where there is an investigation or review, it is not clear how or whether these contribute to accountability or prevention of future deaths. All prison deaths are mandated by law to have a fatal accident inquiry (FAI), yet this year Scottish prisons have seen a staggering increase in deaths this past year: 64 people died in 2024, compared to 40 the year before.
The aims of report are to answer these questions:
- How many people die in state custody in Scotland?
- What do we know about those who die?
- How effective are investigations and responses to death?
The report was written by Sarah Armstrong, Linda Allan, Rachelle Cobain and Betsy Barks (all University of Glasgow) and Deborah Russo (Queen’s University Belfast).
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