death of Sheku Bayoh, who died in police
custody in Scotland in May 2015. I hope
these investigations provide lessons to
prevent the same cases happening again.
Another significant event from the reporting
year was the first ever visit to the UK by
the UN’s Subcommittee on the Prevention
of Torture (SPT). The SPT is a UN treaty
body, made up of Independent Experts on
protecting the rights of people in detention.
It plays an important role in advising and
assisting NPMs and governments around the
world in carrying out the Optional Protocol
to the Convention against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (OPCAT) mandate.
A delegation from the SPT conducted the visit
to the UK in September 2019. I was delighted
when the SPT announced this visit, and it
was a privilege to have them work with the
UK NPM. During the visit, we were able to
discuss some of our pressing concerns with
the SPT, related to both the treatment of
people in detention and the lack of legislation
for the NPM. The committee shadowed
NPM members on various inspections
and visits, conducted their own visits to
places of detention and held meetings with
government officials, national human rights
institutions and third sector organisations
with expertise in detention-related issues.
This year’s Annual Report outlines where the
SPT visited and discusses the importance
of this international scrutiny for the NPM
and UK. As members of the UK NPM work
together on how best to respond to the SPT
report published after the UN’s visit, we look
forward to developing the ways in which we
carry out our preventive mandate.
detention and deprived of their liberty
were, and still are, one of the groups most
vulnerable to the virus and the associated
severe restrictions in places of detention.
Although much of the work NPM members
have done to monitor the situation for
people in detention during this difficult time
has taken place outside of the reporting
year, occurring after March 2020, our Annual
Report touches on how we responded
to COVID-19. The NPM will publish a
comprehensive report on the impact of the
virus across all types of detention settings in
the UK in due course.
Evidently, 2019–20 was an important year
for the UK NPM. In the year since we
celebrated our 10th anniversary, we have
continued to exercise our preventive role in
a busy and difficult context, which involved
scrutiny from a UN torture prevention body
and unprecedented challenges related to
COVID-19. As Chair of the NPM, I feel proud
of the difference made by the NPM and its
21 members, the details of which are set out
in this year’s Annual Report.
John Wadham
Chair
UK National Preventive Mechanism
The end of the reporting year was
dominated by the coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic. Since then, people across the UK
have been in various levels of ‘lockdown’.
As noted by the NPM and international
human rights organisations, people in
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