National Preventive Mechanism Eighth Annual Report 2016–17
strengthen this introduced by Labour (which
the NPM welcomed) were rejected at the
Public Bill Committee by Prisons Minister Sam
Gyimah MP and withdrawn.137,138
In January 2017, the NPM Chair also
responded to a letter from Sam Gyimah,
notifying him of the conclusions of a
governance review of the Independent
Monitoring Boards (IMBs). The Chair
expressed satisfaction that the new
governance model is an improvement on
previous arrangements, but set out his
concerns that the IMB secretariat would
continue to be line managed by civil servants
sitting in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which
also has operational responsibility for most of
the places IMBs monitor.
With a view to strengthening its public profile
and publicising its work, the NPM established
a Twitter feed (@uknpm) in November 2016.
During the year the Twitter feed was used to
promote NPM projects, the detention-related
work and reports of its members, and
international developments related to torture
prevention and detention.
Through the year the NPM and its members
worked with Professor Rachel Murray
and Dr Judy Laing from the Human Rights
Implementation Centre at Bristol University
on two projects aimed at strengthening the
NPM’s OPCAT compliance. The first project
aimed to examine the extent of compliance
of the lay visiting schemes within the NPM
with OPCAT. The second project set out to
identify how incidents of ill-treatment in
detention/deprivation of liberty contexts
are recorded and the mechanisms available
to deal with them. Desk research was
conducted during the year for both projects.
Member-specific developments
The Care Inspectorate (CI) and Healthcare
Improvement Scotland led the development
of Scotland’s new Health and Social
Care Standards on behalf of the Scottish
Government. Following extensive
consultation and engagement with people
experiencing, providing and commissioning
care, the new standards were launched on 9
June 2017.
The CI implemented major changes to its
inspection methodology with effect from
1 July 2016. The new approach, to inspect
against quality themes rather than quality
statements, aims to enable inspectors to
review the quality of care provided in a more
holistic way, and shorter inspection reports
will make it easier for people to access
scrutiny findings. In addition to its ongoing
inspection work, the CI carried out targeted
scrutiny work throughout the year in relation
to care homes, housing support services
and care at home services supporting
people with a learning disability. This work
was undertaken following the publication
in 2013 of Scotland’s 10-year strategy for
supporting people with a learning disability.
The CI published the results of its two-year
programme of focused inspection work
137. Hansard, 2017, Prisons and Courts Bill (Third sitting), 29 March 2017 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2017-0329/debates/fed3b6b9-d00b-449f-9a4a-35e3806682e4/PrisonsAndCourtsBill(ThirdSitting) [accessed 13/11/17].
138. The Prisons and Courts Bill was dropped after the announcement of a snap General Election and Parliament was dissolved.
At the opening of the new parliament in June 2017, there was no indication in the Queen’s Speech that the government
intended to reintroduce prisons legislation, and a ‘Courts Bill’ was reintroduced without any of the previous provisions
relating to prisons.
58
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