National Preventive Mechanism 1.2 Monitoring and control visits in numbers In the year under review, the commissions completed a total of 428 visits. As explained in the preface of this report, the Act on the Implementation of OPCAT vests the Austrian NPM with a very broad mandate, which goes beyond the mandate of a regular NPM. 366 unannounced visits In 366 cases, the visits and observations were unannounced, and announced in advance in 62 cases. Thus, the general procedure is to make unannounced visits. The average duration of a visit was three and one half hours. Form these 428 visits throughout Austria, 280 were made to places where persons are being detained as defined in the OPCAT mandate. These were primarily retirement and nursing homes, institutions and facilities operated by youth welfare authorities, police detention centres and police stations as well as correctional institutions. Another 79 visits were made to institutions and facilities for persons with disabilities (as defined in the CRPD) and 69 visits included observations of the conduct of authorities empowered by the State to exercise direct administrative power and to carry out coercive measures. As in the past reporting years, the commissions focused on retirement and nursing homes, psychiatric institutions and institutions and facilities operated by youth welfare authorities. As far as numbers are concerned, these institutions and facilities significantly exceed police and judiciary, which is why the seamless fulfilment of the mandate as a matter of routine represents a particular challenge. Monitoring activities of the commissions Land 2014 2013 Vienna 133 164 Lower Austria 75 100 Tyrol 54 66 Styria 53 51 Carinthia 35 27 Upper Austria 25 55 Salzburg 25 28 Burgenland 19 23 Vorarlberg 9 15 428 529 TOTAL 64