National Preventive Mechanism Ninth Annual Report 2017–18 There are currently 88 states parties to OPCAT, and 67 designated NPMs.2 Overview of the NPM The UK ratified OPCAT in December 2003 and designated its NPM in March 2009. Designation of the NPM was the responsibility of the UK government and it chose to designate multiple existing bodies rather than create a new, single-body NPM. This took into account the fact that many types of detention in the UK were already subject to monitoring by independent bodies, as envisaged by OPCAT, and the different political, legal and administrative systems in place in the four nations that make up the UK. There are now 21 bodies designated to the NPM; the most recent designation was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation on 12 January 2017.3 Scotland Care Inspectorate (CI) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) Independent Custody Visiting Scotland (ICVS) Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWCS) Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) Independent Monitoring Boards (Northern Ireland) (IMBNI) Northern Ireland Policing Board Independent Custody Visiting Scheme (NIPBICVS) Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) England and Wales Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)4 Care Quality Commission (CQC) Children’s Commissioner for England (CCE) Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) Lay Observers (LO) Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) United Kingdom Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (IRTL) The bodies which make up the UK NPM monitor different types of detention across the jurisdictions, including prisons, police custody, court custody, customs custody facilities, secure accommodation for children, immigration facilities, mental health and military detention, as follows: 2 United Nations Treaty Collection, ‘Chapter IV: 9. b Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’, status as at 09/07/2018, https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails. aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-9-b&chapter=4&clang=_en accessed 09/07/2018; Association for the Prevention of Torture, OPCAT database, available at http://www.apt.ch/en/opcat-database/, accessed 9 July 2018. 3 Further information on the process of designation and a link to the Written Ministerial Statement can be found on the website of the NPM at https://www.nationalpreventivemechanism.org.uk/about/background/, accessed 9 July 2018. 4 Care Inspectorate Wales changed its name from Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales in January 2018. 10