Liam McArthur

The throughcare service, which supports inmates who are leaving prison, will relaunch when it makes “operational sense”, the SPS said.

The scheme began in 2015 and paired prisoners with TSOs who assisted them with housing and medical provision. About 25 per cent of short-term prisoners had engaged with the service. The entire 44-person SPS team is now being redeployed. 

Mr Yousaf said it was a decision for the prison service.

Scottish Liberal Democrats justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: “All the evidence shows that properly resourced throughcare can make an enormous difference to ensuring that people released from prison don’t become repeat offenders.

“Our prisons are bursting at the seams. The suspension of this team is bad news for those serving custodial sentences and the safety of the communities they will return to.

“Under the SNP, the prison population has gone through the roof. The Justice Secretary cannot just throw up his hands and pass the buck. He has a responsibility to help the SPS restore this critical service.

“What we need is significant policy change on the part of a sluggish Scottish Government and a properly resourced prison service with a stronger focus on properly rehabilitating people.”

A spokeswoman for the SPS said: “The increasing prisoner population together with the increasingly complex needs of those in our care means that our capacity and capability is stretched.”

She added: “To respond to these current and emerging challenges, we have to ensure that our frontline staff are deployed where they are needed most; at this time, this is in our prisons and that is why the SPS has taken the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our Throughcare service and deploy all Throughcare staff to prison officer roles within establishments.

“The SPS’s priority is, and always will be, to ensure the safety and decency of those in our care and the health and wellbeing of our staff.”