Figures show the number of prisoners is increasing each year

Figures show a total of 7,497 people were housed in the country's jails on Tuesday.

Provisional figures for February showed the average daily population increased by about 5% in 2006 to an average of 7,111, compared with 6,792 for 2005.

The Scottish Prison Service said the increase was due to the number of young offenders and those on remand.

We are spending more taxpayers' money on bed and board for offenders, and re-offending by those released from prison has not reduced Kenny MacAskill Justice Secretary

The figures would have been higher had it not been for more than 200 prisoners currently serving sentences while tagged at home, under Home Detention Curfews (HDC).

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said that by 0700 BST on Wednesday, the total prison population had fallen slightly, to 7,483, with the number on HDC at 287.

He added: "It is true that we are experiencing record high numbers but it is a testament to the prison service that we are managing this situation well."

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill announced last week that an independent commission is to be set up to consider how prisons are used in Scotland.

'More prisons'

Mr MacAskill also set out a financial package of �120m a year for the prison service to improve conditions and end slopping out.

"Compared with 20 years ago, the number of crimes committed has fallen by 40,000 but our prison population has increased by almost a third," he said.

"We are spending more taxpayers' money on bed and board for offenders, and re-offending by those released from prison has not reduced.

"As a country, that's a conveyer belt that we need to get off."

Commenting on the figures, Conservative MSP Bill Aitken urged the executive to build more prisons.

He said: "Prison serves four functions: to deter, to punish, an opportunity to rehabilitate and to protect the public.

"But the last function is the most important and if public safety demands that people are jailed, resulting in the need for more prisons, then the executive must have the courage to build them.