Health inspectors have found that the State Hospital in Carstairs has several areas of improvement.

According to a report released by the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate, the psychiatric hospital for individuals with violent or criminal propensities is generally complying with national guidelines on infection control.

However, six areas of improvement have been outlined for the hospital in the report released on Monday.

There include ensuring that senior charge nurses can implement improvements at the facility in South Lanarkshire, while the hospital has also been told by the agency to ensure that out of date and conflicting infection control policies are removed from the staffing manual.

Susan Brimelow, chief inspector, said after the unannounced inspection took place on March 27: "Overall we found that the State Hospitals Board for Scotland is complying with most standards to protect patients, staff and visitors from acquiring an infection. Since our previous inspection of the hospital in August 2011, all patients are being cared for in new purpose built accommodation and the hospital has a robust system for checking bed mattresses.

"We found three requirements made at our last inspection in August 2011 have not been fully complied with and we expect the State Hospitals Board to address these as a priority. We found that infection control policies and procedures should be reviewed to ensure that duplicate, conflicting or out-of-date policies are removed from the infection control manual. In addition, there needs to be clarification around the responsibilities of senior staff in checking that cleaning is carried out."