Overview of the National Preventive Mechanism be predominantly unannounced and in so doing to consider as many sources of information as possible. Confidentiality must be given priority in conversations with persons in police custody or with police officers in order to prevent reprisals against those interviewed. SEE NPM Medical Group The Serbian NPM, who has the chair of the “Medical Group” of the SEE NPM Network, organised an online meeting on the topic of substance use disorders in prisons and correctional institutions. An expert from the Austrian NPM took part in this online exchange and discussed with colleagues the problem of the existence of illegal substances in prisons and correctional institutions, how these are smuggled in and how the problem can be countered, for example, by recognising substance use disorders as an illness, the necessity of adequate therapies and special training of the staff. Since 2014, the Austrian NPM has been partner of a programme for exchanging experience and ideas between NPMs from the German-speaking countries and participates actively in meetings with colleagues from Germany and Switzerland as part of this D-A-CH Network. Expert discussion on German NPM The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture in Germany had the chair of the D-A-CH Network in the year under review. The meeting planned in Germany had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. However, the parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen organised an internal expert discussion dealing with the NPM in Germany. Austria and Switzerland as best practice examples Grounds for the debate was an expert opinion prepared by the scientific services office of the German parliament that compared the German NPM with institutions from six other countries (including Austria) and analysed how the German NPM is equipped and which opportunities it has. The Swiss and Austrian NPMs were cited as examples of best practice in this analysis. An expert from the Austrian NPM also took part in this online exchange as did a representative from the Swiss NPM and members of the Council of Europe’s Anti-torture Committee. NPM Newsletter To promote closer cooperation, the Austrian NPM regularly contributes reports and articles to the Council of Europe’s NPM newsletter. In one of these reports on NPM monitoring in COVID-19 times, the NPM iterated the measures taken by the Austrian federal and regional governments at the beginning of the year, how they affected monitoring tasks and how the NPM performed its monitoring work at the start of the pandemic. Older persons in detention 21 Another edition of the newsletter dealt with older persons in detention. In this article, the NPM highlighted that Austrian prisons often do not accommodate the special needs of older persons. Examples included a lack of barrier-free