JEAN-JACQUES GAUTIER NPM SYMPOSIUM 2015 questions about the sexual orientation of detainees would be considered a violation of the right to privacy and personal data protection. Symposium participants concluded that such a practice could be counter-productive in countries characterised by their deep-rooted intolerance of sexual and gender diversity. In such contexts, detainees would not feel free to reveal their sexual orientation, even anonymously to the NPM, for fear of exposing themselves to reprisals. United Kingdom: the use of questionnaires prior to visits The Inspectorate of Prisons for England and Wales (part of the UK NPM) has a practice of distributing questionnaires to detention facilities prior to visiting them. These anonymous questionnaires cover various issues - including sexual orientation - and serve to gain an overview of the detainee population in a given institution. The questionnaires are then collected and reviewed by the Inspectorate which conducts statistical analysis, enabling prior identification of problems and issues that can be further examined during visits. France: Detainee correspondence as a source of information The French NPM collects valuable information from detainee correspondence (saisine). This enables the NPM to learn more about current problems faced by detainees. It is thanks to this information source that the Contrôle général des lieux de privation de liberté (CGLPL) became aware of the difficulties faced by a transgender detainee and began to address this problem. Individual situations described in detainee correspondence not only allows the NPM to follow up on specific cases but also to obtain a general overview of malfunctions and problems existing in places of deprivation of liberty prior to visiting them. Dialogue with civil society organisations active at grassroots level was identified as central to the preparation of visits. Initial contact with experts on LGBT issues, or with local NGOs, was viewed as a potentially unique opportunity for NPMs to collect information on the LGBT population. In parallel, NPMs could contribute to the work 22