Nicola Sturgeon

The £75 million HMP Inverclyde has been widely opposed by campaigners and opposition parties who say the focus should be on reducing the number of women being put in prison.

BBC Scotland reported that the justice secretary Michael Matheson is to make a statement this month on plans for the jail.

At first minister’s questions Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: “Is it true that contractors working on the new women’s prison project in Greenock will be told tomorrow that the project is not now going ahead?”

First minister Nicola Sturgeon, said that the matter was being considered carefully by Mr Matheson.

She told MSPs: “It is an issue that Michael Matheson, and indeed myself as first minister, and the government have been looking at carefully, because we want to make sure that the decision that is taken here is the right decision.

“And I also want to make clear that my view is that all of us across the chamber should be determined to work to reduce not just the prison population generally, but the female prison population in particular.”

Scottish government officials said construction is expected to begin in September on the 300-capacity prison which would become Scotland’s only all-women jail, replacing Cornton Vale in Stirlingshire.

The government established a Commission on Women Offenders (CWO) in 2012 which was led by former lord advocate Elish Angiolini.

The commission recommended that the majority of female prisoners on remand or those serving short term sentences ought to be held in local prisons; that supported accommodation should be commissioned as an alternative option to custody and, finally, that a number of alternatives to prosecution and the imprisonment of women on remand needs to be developed.

In addition, the commission found that Cornton Vale ought to be replaced with a smaller, specialist prison for long-term inmates as well as those deemed a significant risk to the public.

Campaigners want to see the government implement the Angiolini report instead of going ahead with a new facility.