He was missing for a week before handing himself in at the police station in Kinross.

Martin had previously absconded from Noranside Prison near Forfar and had escaped from a hospital escort while in Perth Prison. He should not have been sent back to an open prison again, but the system failed.

An embarrassed government ordered an inquiry, chaired by Professor Alec Spencer, which made several recommendations last year for improvements.

Today justice secretary Kenny MacAskill published the official response to the inquiry findings, saying that most of the recommendations have either been implemented or will be in the future.

But he said a further independent review of how the updated procedures are working would be necessary.

Mr MacAskill said the Martin case had resulted in “concerns about the decision-taking process applied by the Scottish Prison Service when considering the transfer of a prisoner to conditions of increased freedoms within the prison estate.

“The process for transferring prisoners to the Open Estate had already been tightened substantially as a result of the measures I instigated after the Robert Foye case (who raped a schoolgirl after absconding from Castle Huntly).

“Those tighter procedures had already seen a large drop in the number of absconds from the Open Estate from 79 in 2006/07 to just 16 in 2008/09.

“However, it was evident that the essence of those tighter procedures had not been followed in the Brian Martin case.”

He said five of the recommendations were already in place.

These include changes to the SPS’s prisoner management computer database to “flag up” any previous instances where a prisoner has escaped or absconded, ensuring that staff are aware of such incidents when making decisions about them.

A process has also been put in place to review all paper-based records, so that before anyone is transferred to Castle Huntly or Noranside, all available data on him has been checked.

Also, before a transfer takes place, it must be approved by the governor or deputy governor, and all relevant information about a prisoner must be considered by a multi-disciplinary progression management group.

A further review has to be carried out before a prisoner is granted home leave or allowed out on work placements.

It is also mandatory now for the SPS to share relevant information with the police on all prisoners going to the Open Estate.

This includes details of any on-going police investigations or outstanding criminal proceedings.

Social workers also now contribute to background reports on prisoners before they are allowed home leave.

However, two of the recommendations have not been accepted now, but left for longer-term study.

Prof Spencer said the Open Estate should be restricted to long-term prisoners and that they should only be transferred from closed conditions one year before they can be considered for parole.

The government report said, “Absconds from the Open Estate have reduced significantly since the implementation of the recommendations resulting from the Foye report in 2008.

“There is therefore no significant evidence available to support the view that prisoners are more likely to abscond because they have transferred to the Open Estate earlier than a year before their parole qualification date.”

The SPS will look at these recommendations again later in light of the findings of forthcoming research into the use of open prisons and home detention curfews in reintegrating prisoners into society.

Prof Spencer’s review also resulted in several information suggestions, including the use of electronic tagging of prisoners when they are out of Castle Huntly and Noranside, and the use of multi-agency public protection arrangements for certain prisoners in the Open Estate.

The first idea will be kept under review, as a pilot project found problems with the technology needed for satellite monitoring.

However, the second has been accepted.