More than £1m of public money was spent heating up prisons in three of the coldest months of the year.

This revelation has come hard on the heels of the Lbaour government budget announcement that it is abolishing winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Figures published by the Scottish Prison Service showed how much money was spent during November and December 2023 and January 2024.

Some prisoners enjoy underfloor heating by way of a high-tech system installed in HMP Grampian before it opened in 2014.

The bill is set to be even larger this winter with colder temperatures already hitting the country.

Almost one million Scottish pensioners are set to miss out on the vital winter fuel payment after Sir Keir Starmer decided to make it means tested.

The Scottish Government then followed suit by axing plans to make it devolved and blaming it on Labour.

The £300 payment is now only available to those in receipt of Pension Credit, with the cuts saving around £2.2 billion for the Treasury. The SNP Government said that its budget for this was cut by £160m.

According to the Scottish Prison Service, £592,278 was spent in January 2024, £532,329 in December 2023 and £454,376 in November 2023.

The highest bill was at Scotland’s most notorious prison Barlinnie, which dated from the Victorian era and is well past its sell-by date, with this hitting over £146,000 in January 2024. This will be replaced by HMP Glasgow in the next decade.