National Preventive Mechanism Eighth Annual Report 2016–17 the shortest possible period of time and not used discriminatorily against certain groups of children; ensure child detainees are separated from adults in all detention settings; and immediately remove all children from solitary confinement, prohibit its use in all circumstances and regularly inspect the use of segregation and isolation in child detention facilities. The then Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families, Edward Timpson, expressed the government’s commitment to implementing the CRC in a written ministerial statement to Parliament on 17 October 2016. The Minister welcomed the Concluding Observations, which he considered a ‘helpful and important guide to making sure that our policies – whether they hold direct or indirect consequences – consider children’, and encouraged all government departments to take them into account. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights reviewed the UK’s progress in implementing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in June 2016. In a submission to the review, the SHRC raised concerns about the increase in the number of mental health issues in prisons, the effectiveness in practice of Scottish mental health legislation, and the wide variation in the understanding and interpretation of the sections of the 2003 Act that allow restrictions to be placed on people who are detained. In its Concluding Observations, the Committee expressed concern about the lack of adequate resources provided to mental health services, recommending that the UK ‘continue its efforts […] to ensure the accessibility, availability and quality of mental health care, including for persons in detention’.147 Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Both the CCE and the SHRC submitted shadow reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was due to review the UK in August 2017. The Committee set out a number of questions on topics relating to detention for the UK government to answer during the review. These included: legislative safeguards protecting persons with disabilities against deprivation of liberty on the basis of impairment; measures taken to eliminate involuntary detention of persons with disabilities; measures taken in response to the abuse of persons with disabilities in detention and care settings; and the use of restraints.148 147. UN Economic and Social Council, 2016, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (E/C.12/GBP/CO/6), paragraph 58 http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=4slQ6QSmlBEDzFEovLCuW3XRinAE8KCBFoqO HNz%2FvuCC%2BTxEKAI18bzE0UtfQhJkxxOSGuoMUxHGypYLjNFkwxnMR6GmqogLJF8BzscMe9zpGfTXBkZ4pEaigi44xqiL [accessed 13/11/17]. 148. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2017, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, List of issues in relation to the initial report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CRPD/C/GBR/Q/1), http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhspCUnZhK1jU66fLQJyHIkqNcV0% 2bbbuLXeQ%2fdBVXpGv7ordThA%2fcAhrT1NTqH2Zn%2f35xqULqacJsNBSBmE8qWT9qRXZj9cTaa1cYf4R%2frDnjJ [accessed 13/11/17]. 68