cooperation formation on the treatment, living conditions and health care of prisoners. Krits provides valuable knowledge about the problems of which it is informed by prisoners and their families. In the health care sector, collaboration partners include the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira) and Regional State Administrative Agencies (AVI). Before visits, as a rule the competent regional state administrative agency is contacted in order to gain information on its observations about the facility in question. Other third-party operators, such as local associations for the families of psychiatric patients, may also be contacted prior to visits. The Ombudsman and the senior management of Valvira held a collaboration meeting in September 2017. The Ombudsman also receives AVI Northern Finland’s supervision plans for the Prisoners’ Health Care Unit, and guidance and assessment reports following its visits. As part of this collaboration, the Ombudsman sends its own supervision plans and reports, for information, to Valvira and the Regional State Administrative Agency. The Ombudsman, Valvira and AVI Northern Finland also hold regular meetings on issues in the field of prisoner health care. In the field of social welfare, reports on visits are generally sent to the relevant Regional State Administrative Agency for information. In 2016, Valvira published the results of the survey on the mistreatment of customers in elderly care, which it conducted in 2016 among employees at full-time care facilities for older people. The survey revealed widespread problems among elderly care units in areas such as self-monitoring, identifying mistreatment, and intervening in cases of mistreatment. Valvira has initiated reactive supervision in units where, on the basis of the survey, it considers it necessary to investigate whether the safety of customers has been severely compromised. The survey results will also be of use to the NPM when selecting sites for inspection visits. Valvira published a similar survey on the actualisation of self-determination within residential and institutional services for the intellectually disabled. Data on the use of restriction measures and decision-making processes is essential to the NPM in its work. International cooperation The UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture The NPM’s report on 2016 was submitted for information to the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). The SPT presented a number of comments and questions to the NPM on the annual report, which were addressed by the OPCAT team. In October 2017, the NPM, headed by the Ombudsman, met SPT member Mari Amos, who is the subcommittee’s rapporteur for Finland. Among other things, the parties discussed the resources of the NPM, touched upon some of the issues that the SPT had raised regarding the latest report, and prepared for the next meeting alongside the SPT. The delegation of the Ombudsman met with SPT representatives again in November 2017, at the SPT annual meeting in Geneva. Prior to the meeting, the NPM had provided the SPT with a completed Assessment Matrix for NPMs, which was based on the “Analytical assessment tool for national preventive mechanisms” created by the STP for the use of NPMs. After the meeting, SPT provided feedback and asked some further questions. The Ombudsman gave his response to the feedback in April 2018. 13