CAT/OP/GBR/CNPMRO/1
1.
The UK NPM welcomes the report of the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture
(SPT) following its visit to the UK in September 2019. The support of the SPT has been very
important to the NPM since the NPM was created in 2009 and the NPM continues to rely on
its advice and help. The NPM also wishes to thank the members of the SPT delegation and
secretariat who provided support as critical friends during the visit itself.
2.
The SPT had a very difficult task to assess a 21 multi-body NPM which works across
four nations and, unfortunately, the delegates were not able to visit Northern Ireland or Wales
or to shadow the work of every NPM member. Nevertheless, the report will be very helpful
in taking forward the work of the NPM and there have already been significant positive
changes which are set out in the response below. The NPM looks forward to a continuing
dialogue with the SPT in the future based on its report and this response.
3.
This response is structured around the SPT’s report recommendations and needs to be
read in that context.
Section A. Institutional framework and mandate
Paragraph 39 – The Subcommittee considers that adoption of legislation regarding the NPM
and its members is necessary in order for the UK to fully comply with its international
obligations under OPCAT. The duties and powers of the NPM, led by an independent Chair
and with formal recognition of the NPM’s coordinating role, shall be embedded in a
legislative text, and explicit references to NPM and OPCAT responsibilities should be
incorporated in the members’ own statutes. The SPT fully supports the NPM efforts in that
regard and will continue to raise these concerns with the State Party.
4.
The NPM welcomes the SPT recommendation that the duties and powers of the NPM
should be enshrined in statute. The NPM also welcomes a recent Ministry of Justice (MOJ)
consultation on changes to legislation to Arm’s Length Bodies, which notably includes
placing the NPM on a statutory footing.1 Discussions took place in August and September
2020 across the NPM to reach broad consensus on how to respond to this consultation. The
NPM’s submission in response to this consultation addressed key concerns raised by the
SPT.2 The NPM Secretariat will provide the SPT with information about how this process
develops.
Paragraph 45 – The Subcommittee recommends the NPM to continue actively engaging with
the State Party to gain unhindered and immediate access to all places of deprivation of liberty,
defined in article 4 of the OPCAT. In this connection, the Subcommittee emphasises that the
State shall allow visits to any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or
may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue or with its consent or acquiescence.
Therefore, any place in which a person is deprived of liberty or where a person might be
deprived of liberty, should fall within the scope of the NPM.
5.
The NPM acknowledges the need for unfettered access to independently visit and
monitor all places of detention and stands ready to assist as needed to help establish this.
6.
NPM members have to date made efforts to ensure that military detention facilities in
the UK are within its remit and it has the necessary powers to monitor these facilities. The
Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) have been in discussion with the Ministry of Defence
regarding the monitoring of military detention facilities in the UK. The NPM Secretariat was
also in correspondence with the SPT regarding advice on monitoring persons held in
compulsory quarantine for reasons of public health protection. 3
1
2
3
2
Ministry of Justice, September 2020, Consultation on ‘Strengthening the Independent Scrutiny Bodies
through legislation’ https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/strengthening-theindependent-scrutiny-bodies/.
UK NPM, September 2020, Submission to Ministry of Justice’s Consultation on ‘Strengthening the
Independent Scrutiny Bodies through legislation’, https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/npm-prodstorage-19n0nag2nk8xk/uploads/2020/09/UK-NPM_Response-to-MOJ-consultation_092020.
pdf_WEB.pdf.
Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, February 2020, Advice of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to the National
Preventive Mechanism of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland regarding