HMP Grampian prison block underused due to staff shortages

He explained: “You can’t open up any bit of accommodation unless you have enough staff to do it safely and responsibly.

“To be fair again to the Scottish Prison Service as a whole, they have provided a particular drive, particular incentives, to try and encourage people to move up from the central belt and support the team here at Grampian.

“They have also done their local recruitment campaign here, targeting ways of getting more people in locally, and that’s also been successful.”

“They’re not exactly where they need to be, but they’re in a much better place.

“We’ve got 10 prisons in Scotland that are overcrowded to a tune of 750 prisoners – taking 750 prisoners more than those prisons are really designed to hold.”

He said filling Cruden Hall would be a “step forward” but on its own it was “not going to solve the problem”.