PRISONERS are being routinely shipped out of Scotland's busiest custody centres every week to be held at cells up to 80 miles away, only to be transported back for court appearances.

The moves, which could cost the taxpayer millions every year, are the result of an edict brought in to end the practice of holding more than one prisoner in custody suites for health and safety reasons.

Union leaders and lawyers have raised concerns that the weekly transfer of remand prisoners, which results in police-escorted round trips of up to 160 miles for each court appearance, is causing chaos in the administration of justice in Scotland.

They say it regularly removes officers and vehicles from frontline duties and causes delays to court procedure as prisoners are held up on the way to hearings.

Unison Scotland estimates up to 60 detainees have to be transported from overwhelmed custody centres in Edinburgh and Aberdeen to cells in Dundee, Glasgow, Greenock, Arbroath and Saltcoats, only to be brought back for hearings by G4S security officers.

The union has been told that although the 42 cells in the St Leonard's custody suite in Edinburgh, Scotland's busiest centre, were designed for multiple-occupancy, the one-person-one cell edict still has to be enforced.

The move, which was brought in back in April, immediately made the suite too small.

Solicitor Nigel Beaumont, who has worked out of Edinburgh Sheriff Court for over 30 years, said: "In the running of the courts, it turns what is already an shambles into a more risible shambles.

"It has meant courts are sitting until 6pm or 7pm as they wait for people to come in from distant police stations."

Stephen Diamond, of Unison, said: "There is an inherent risk in routinely transferring prisoners, even low risk ones. Road accidents are a major risk, the attempted rescue of prisoners a minor one.

"We have concerns about police staff dealing with increased number of prisoners. The cost and time element of using police to transfer already arrested prisoners is a concern.

"The police and fire reform ethos is based around best value and in our view this is not best value."

There are further concerns that many on remand have been unable to access legal advice as legal aid does not cover the extra costs of solicitors following them across the country.

Police Scotland confirmed multi-celling had been abolished because it was considered "unacceptable from a safety and security point of view". It also said this coincided with the number of custody prisoners being handled rising due to "robust" investigations into domestic abuse incidents and an increased pro-activity in operational policing.

Superintendent Fiona McPherson, the custody operations lead for Police Scotland, said every transfer was "scrutinised and risk assessed" by senior managers and co-ordinated to "stringent standards".

She said: "All officers are committed to carrying out the process with fairness, integrity and respect and these values are at the heart of every thing that we do. By conducting the transfers across our estate, it alleviates capacity issues in particularly busy areas.

"This means frontline officers are supported and can return to keeping people safe in their respective communities.

"The transfers between police custody suites are carried out by police staff. However, they are carried out at times of shift overlap when staff levels permit. This means individuals can be safely and professionally transferred by trained police staff at time were there is little impact to other police functions."