CAT/OP/DEU/2/Add.1 22. With reference to the recommendation of the SPT contained in paragraph 37 of the SPT visit report, the Federal Government doubled the Federal Agency’s members in May 2013. This is considered sufficient for the roughly 270 facilities, mainly police stations. The Government has also declared its position in increasing the federal share in the National Agency’s funding. The Federal Agency maintains contacts with the Federal Parliament’s Human Rights Committee. 23. The Länder Governments are currently discussing the issue of insufficient personnel and financial resources. The chairman of the Joint Commission has been in constant exchange with the Hessian State Secretary of Justice and has personally explained the urgency of the matter to the heads of department for execution of sanctions. The Conference of Ministers of Justice has contacted the Conferences of Ministers of the Interior and of Social and Labour Affairs to share the additional financial burden caused by an increase of the Joint Commission’s members and funding. Both Conferences have informed the Conference of Ministers of Justice that they would support the increase of members. The funding remains to be decided. The Joint Commission maintains contact with the Conference of Ministers of Justice on the issue. 24. The National Agency rents its own offices in the same building as those of the Centre for Criminology. The Centre for Criminology provides human resources administration and accounts management, while the National Agency executes all preventive tasks in full independence and without any interference by third parties. Until now the National Agency has not been confronted with doubts about its independence due to its attachment to the Centre for Criminology. 25. With reference to the recommendation of the SPT contained in paragraph 39 of the SPT visit report, when planning a visit, the National Agency takes into account the size and type of the facility and correspondingly decides the size of the visiting team and the amount of time to spend on each visit. 26. With reference to the recommendation of the SPT contained in paragraph 41 of the SPT visit report, the National Agency already consults detainee files and other documentation on every visit. Access was almost always provided without restrictions and, if required, files were even sent to its offices by the authorities. Only once has there been a case where immediate access has been denied. 27. With reference to the recommendation of the SPT contained in paragraph 43 of the SPT visit report, see replies under recommendation contained in paragraph 37 of the visit report, above. 28. With reference to the recommendation of the SPT contained in paragraph 45 of the SPT visit report, see replies under recommendation contained in paragraph 14 of the visit report, above. 29. There are generally relatively few detention cases at the facilities to be visited by the Federal Agency. The number of detentions at army facilities has fallen sharply since the armed forces were transformed into a professional army. In fact, the Federal Agency has not met a single soldier under disciplinary arrest in the past five years. The Federal Police has only restricted competencies and hence detains relatively few people as well. Customs authorities only have 24 detention facilities. Given the limited probability in encountering persons in detention, the Federal Agency focuses more on learning about the attitudes of officials, the atmosphere among staff and detention-related training for officers. It, therefore, usually announces its visits to ensure that the facility director and representatives of the staff association are on site. However, for each visit it will continue to consider whether unannounced visits or visits outside usual office hours may produce more insight into the situation of detainees. 5