CAT/OP/C/57/4 B. 1. Development of working practices Visits 39. While visits are one of the fundamental functions of the Subcommittee, to date it has been possible to undertake only a limited number of visits each year owing to the financial and human resource constraints within OHCHR. Nevertheless, in 2015, the Subcommittee expanded its programme of visits, completing eight visits focusing on various aspects, including the visit to Netherlands that had originally been planned for 2014 and the resumed visit to Azerbaijan following the suspension of the 2014 visit. 40. The Subcommittee had in previous years found innovative ways to engage with both national preventive mechanisms and States parties, crafting different types of visit in an attempt to enable it to fulfil its mandate under article 11 (1) (b) of the Optional Protocol. While it has been useful for the Subcommittee to focus on particular issues in different types of visit, such categorization has at times proved limiting and has hindered the Subcommittee in the full and robust exercise of its mandate. The Subcommittee therefore decided to cease categorizing its visits and to formulate, from 2016, a plan best suited to the exigencies of each visit. 2. Working groups 41. The working group on medical issues presented its report on the approach of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment regarding the rights of persons institutionalized and treated medically without informed consent (CAT/OP/27/2), which was adopted by the Subcommittee at its twenty-seventh session as a public document, and the prison health-care assessment checklist. The working group also commenced and pursued its work on a health-care resource tool, which will be a compilation of the recommendations on health care made in Subcommittee visit reports. 42. The working group on procedural issues adopted working papers on the definition of the term “place of deprivation of liberty” in relation to the scope of article 4 of the Optional Protocol; body searches conducted by national preventive mechanism staff in the context of monitoring visits; and the application of the principle of confidentiality in the work of national preventive mechanisms. The Subcommittee hopes to have the working papers translated into its working languages and for them to be available on its website. The papers were produced in response to requests for guidance from national preventive mechanisms. The Subcommittee encourages such requests and hopes that the public presentation of a compilation of such position papers will be of general interest. The working group also commenced work on revising the Subcommittee’s policy on reprisals in the light of the San José Guidelines. 43. The working group on jurisprudence and thematic issues concluded its work on developing the Subcommittee’s position on the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons (see sect. V below) and on its paper on the prevention of torture and illtreatment of women deprived of their liberty (CAT/OP/27/1), which was adopted by the Subcommittee at its twenty-seventh session. 44. The ad hoc intersessional working group on the self-assessment tool for national preventive mechanisms was discontinued following the completion of its work. An updated version of the tool was adopted by the Subcommittee (CAT/OP/1/Rev.1) and is available on the Subcommittee website. 45. An ad hoc working group on the Special Fund established by the Optional Protocol was set up, composed of Enrique Andrés Font, Lowell Goddard, Lorena González Pinto, 9