HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland found that staff at HMP Kilmarnock occasionally failed to wear personal protective equipment when they were unable to observe the two-metre distancing requirement.

Inspectors also found that there was little social distancing within prisoner “households”.

Two prisoners and four members of staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at the prison but inspectors were, in the main, positive about conditions.

The report said: “The prison came across as clean, safe, calm and orderly, and the prison management team are to be congratulated on the way they rose to address the additional challenges created by COVID-19.

“We commend HMP Kilmarnock on their foresight and planning in building up stocks of PPE in anticipation of the arrival of COVID-19, which allowed them to make 16,000 items of PPE available to local authorities to help them protect their key workers.

“We welcome the additional recreation time that HMP Kilmarnock had recently provided so that prisoners were in total getting two hours 15 minutes out of their cells to access fresh air, showers and phones, and their commitment to increase time out of cell further in the coming weeks.”