Section five Lay monitoring of custody visiting in Scotland has changed significantly in the context of wider policing reform. In 2011, the Scottish government consulted on the future of policing, resulting in proposals to merge Scotland’s eight police forces into one national service. The NPM collectively, as well as individual members and custody visitors in Scotland, responded to this consultation and encouraged the government to use the restructuring of policing as an opportunity to place independent custody visiting on a statutory footing. This recommendation was accepted and custody visiting was included in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill. The NPM welcomed this initiative and was particularly pleased that the Scottish government had explicitly referenced OPCAT and its requirements in the Bill. Indeed, custody visitors in Scotland are the first of the NPM members to have OPCAT mentioned in their founding legislation. The Bill was also the first legislation in the UK to provide explicitly for visits to detention by the UN’s Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). The Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2012 and its provisions come into force on 1 April 2013. While the NPM commends the Scottish government’s commitment to OPCAT in the context of police custody, consideration should now be given to how the independent visiting of police custody in one national police service can best be supported and administered. In light of the new statutory basis for custody visiting in Scotland, we also call on the UK government to designate Scottish custody visitors separately as a member of the NPM. Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 – relevant extracts 93 Purpose of custody visiting The provisions in this chapter are in pursuance of the objective of OPCAT, that is, the objective of establishing a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 94 Independent custody visiting (1) The authority must make arrangements to ensure that independent custody visitors may — (a) visit detainees (b) access information relevant to the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are detained, and (c) monitor the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are detained. (2) The arrangements must — (a) provide for the appointment as independent custody visitors of suitable persons who are independent of both the authority and the police service (b) authorise independent custody visitors to do anything which the authority considers necessary to enable them to visit detainees and monitor the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are detained, and (c) provide for reporting on each visit. 39