Self-harming in Scotland's prisons has almost doubled in the last four years.

Prisoners hurt themselves on 532 occasions last year - the equivalent of about ten incidents a week - compared to 277 in 2013.

In Scotland's only all-female jail Cornton Vale, prisoners were recorded self-harming 27 times in 2013, up from 59 in 2017.

In Barlinnie the total went from seven to 20, while staff at Edinburgh's Saughton Prison recorded 74 incidents last year, compared to 26 in 2013.

There were 121 incidents of self-harm in 2017 at the HMP Grampian "super-jail" in Peterhead - the highest number of any prison that year.

Liam McArthur, justice spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, who obtained the figures through a Freedom of Information request, said an urgent reform of mental health care in prisons is needed.

"The Scottish Prison Service have been active in improving the identification and recording of self-harm," he said.

"But it is still troubling to see the extent to which self-harm is taking place in Scotland's prisons. Reform of prison mental health care is urgently needed.

"A year ago I wrote to the justice secretary calling for action to address this self-harm epidemic, yet in his parting salvo this week chief inspector of prisons David Strang warned prisoner health care remains an issue.

"Incarceration doesn't mean people should be deprived of the same access to health care as anyone else in the community."