Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland HMIPS inspects prisons, including young offender institutions, paying particular attention to the treatment of and conditions for prisoners. It also inspects prisoner escort arrangements – this includes the conditions in which prisoners are transported from one place to another – as well as court custody facilities or other places where prisoners are held temporarily outside a prison. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/ public-safety/offender-management/ offender/custody/Prisons/hmip http://www.scotland.gov.uk/ Publications/2013/06/4575/0 Independent Custody Visiting Association ICVs are volunteers from the community who visit all police stations where detainees are held to check on their welfare. Custody visiting is statutory and visitors have the power to access police stations, examine records relating to detention, meet detainees for the purpose of discussing their treatment and conditions, and inspect facilities, including cells, washing and toilet facilities, and facilities for the provision of food. One of ICVA’s key roles is to look at the skills base of independent custody visitors and to ensure that they are confident and able to conduct visits to the majority of people in custody and make those visits as effective as possible. With this in mind they have recently developed two training modules focusing on juveniles and the issue of mental health. The aim of these modules is to provide increased confidence, empathy and mutual respect during visits and enable a better understanding of the challenges relating to two categories of potentially vulnerable detainees within police custody. www.icva.org.uk http://icva.org.uk/uploads/publications/ICVA_ Annual_Report_12-13.pdf 38 Independent Custody Visitors (Scotland) ICVs in Scotland carry out regular, unannounced visits to police stations to monitor the treatment of and conditions for detainees. Custody Visitors in Scotland have not yet been designated separately as a member of the UK NPM but are members of the ICVA, although they retain their own funding and management framework. By virtue of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, custody visiting in Scotland is now a statutory scheme. Independent Monitoring Boards IMBs have a statutory duty to satisfy themselves about the state of the prisons or immigration detention facilities they visit, their administration and the treatment of prisoners or detainees. The Boards are made up of unpaid members of the community and fulfil their duties by carrying out regular and frequent visits to establishments. There is a Board for every prison in England and Wales and every immigration removal centre in England, Wales and Scotland, as well as for some short-term holding facilities for immigration detainees. They have also been monitoring some charter flights in the past year. Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State. www.justice.gov.uk/about/imb.htm http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/ about/imb/behind-closed-doors-2012.pdf