Section One Introduction Context addressed. The government has considered our recommendation and plans are being made to instigate the independent monitoring of court custody in England and Wales, and customs custody facilities. Discussions are in progress about inspection of service custody facilities operated by the British military. Our first annual report was very much an introduction to OPCAT, the role of NPMs and the composition of our NPM in the UK. In that report, we profiled each of the NPM members, describing their role, methodology and key findings. In this year’s report, we have presented our work and findings according to the type of detention visited or inspected. We would like to thank the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol for their continuing support; Sarah Green, formerly of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, for her advice in planning our thematic workshop on mental health in detention; and all the other individuals and organisations who assisted the NPM members in their work, including the Association for the Prevention of Torture and the Prison Reform Trust. We direct this report to the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, the UK government and devolved administrations, and those authorities responsible for places of detention. In preparing this report, a recurring theme raised by almost all members of the NPM has been the current economic climate and the need for public bodies to make efficiency savings. This impacts not only on the NPM members and their capacity to carry out monitoring to the extent required by OPCAT, but also on the places of detention visited and their ability to maintain standards and to respond to recommendations. This is a challenge to be addressed by all NPM members in the coming years. Nick Hardwick Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons 5