Section two The NPM in 2019–20 National Preventive Mechanism objectives Strengthening the National Preventive Mechanism Each year, the NPM agrees a business plan to guide the work we do and ensure we meet the requirements of OPCAT. In 2019– 20, we had four objectives. We aimed to: In early March 2020, the NPM members based in Northern Ireland (CJINI, IMBNI, RQIA and NIPBICVS) met to discuss the possibility of setting up a Northern Irish sub-group to improve the collaborative working between the NPM bodies in the region. At this meeting, members highlighted the need to work together to ensure ministers and executive departments in Northern Ireland with responsibility for places of detention were delivering quality services and were compliant with human rights obligations. NPM members in Northern Ireland will continue to explore the best forum for collaborative working in the region. • work together as members of the NPM to strengthen the protection of those in detention in the UK; • ensure every NPM member delivers its own responsibilities under OPCAT; • build an NPM that is effective in delivering all the requirements of OPCAT; and • increase the visibility and awareness of the NPM’s role in prevention, OPCAT, the prohibition of ill-treatment in detention and the Convention Against Torture. Wider engagement and visibility In February 2020, the NPM appeared on an episode of Better Human, a podcast which documents positive human rights stories. IMB National Chair Dame Anne Owers and IMB member Anne Finlayson spoke about the work that monitoring boards do on a voluntary basis to monitor the treatment of people in detention. Alison Thomson from MWCS discussed the important work done to monitor the treatment and conditions in places of mental health detention. The then Head of the UK NPM Secretariat, Louise Finer, spoke about the wider international human rights framework that underpins the work of professional inspectors and volunteer monitors. 63