was being recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The request arose from concerns that information on use of force in MPS custody suites is not collated at local or force-wide level (since a 2010 government directive aimed at reducing bureaucracy eliminated the requirement to record use of force/restraint in standard or centralised form). The pilot study was conducted during existing weekly unannounced inspections by independent custody visitors through a questionnaire. Two-hundred and fifty-two questionnaire returns were received from 400 interactions with detainees. In 145 of these cases, restraints had been used, with handcuffs being the most severe form of restraint in 127 cases. Twenty-three injuries as a result of restraint had been recorded. On nine occasions where restraint had been used, no record had been made in the custody record. In five cases where injury had been sustained during restraint, there was no record of what treatment was given. It has been recommended that a further survey be conducted over a longer period of time and across a wider number of police areas. Ensuring full coverage of all places of detention, OPCAT Article 4.2 The UK NPM seeks to ensure that all places of detention in the UK are visited in line with the provisions of OPCAT. This requires continuous attention to changes in policy and legislation affecting both detention practices and the mandates of NPM members. New developments during the year include: • visits to children and young people in medium secure units by the OCC (England) • monitoring of secure homes for children and other people by the CI (Scotland) • agreement to bring ‘non-designated’ police cells in Northern Ireland into the remit of the Northern Ireland Policing Board Independent Custody Visiting Scheme (NIPBICVS) • inspection of court custody facilities in England and Wales by HMIP • monitoring of overseas escorts by Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs) and HMIP (UK). The OCC began conducting visits to medium secure units (national secure forensic units) which provide inpatient forensic mental health treatment to children and young people aged between 12 and 19. Announced visits were carried out in four units, and the OCC were generally impressed with the standards of care and treatment of young people. They found education to be of high quality and believed the welfare-based and therapeutic approaches used would be beneficial in other detention settings. Recommendations to improve practice further were made in the following areas: informing young people about their rights; being vigilant to overt and covert bullying and encouraging young people to report it; ensuring access to core training for all staff; standardising language and practice relating to seclusion; and practice relating to transfers into and out of high-care environments across the units. As part of its new remit, the CI began to monitor secure homes for children and young people as well as other residential services in Scotland. In February 2013, the third NPM annual report made a formal recommendation to the Minister of Justice for Northern Ireland to legislatively bring non-designated police cells in Northern Ireland within the remit of the NIPBICVS. This recommendation was 19