National Preventive Mechanism Tenth Annual Report 2018–19
to develop. These ensure that the
human rights principles of Participation,
Accountability, Non-discrimination and
equality, Empowerment and Legality (PANEL)
are intertwined through each part of the
prison inspection process. SHRC continued
to work with HMIPS on its regular prison
inspection regime. SHRC also submitted a
response to the Committee against Torture’s
review into the United Kingdom to capture
the protection of people’s human rights in
Scotland.
Independent Custody Visiting Scotland
(ICVS) volunteers carried out over 1,363
visits in 2018–19.101 Working with Police
Scotland, ICVS identified ways to make
independent custody visits more effective. A
pilot ran in two custody centres in the West
of Scotland. These pilots used ICVS ‘points
of contact’ to improve the relationship with
the on-duty custody sergeant, reducing the
number of delays to visits and abandoned
visits in these custody suites.
Custody volunteers raised concerns around
the issuing of the Letter of Rights to people
in custody. Letter of Rights leaflets list the
rights of people in police custody to ensure
they are treated fairly by the police. Police
Scotland has a statutory obligation to provide
detainees with these leaflets under The Right
to Information (Suspect and Accused Persons)
Scotland Regulations 2014. Since these
concerns were raised improvements have
been made to the monitoring of this provision.
Custody visitors now ask people in detention
if they have received a Letter of Rights and
whether they understand its content.
In its monitoring work the Mental Welfare
Commission for Scotland highlighted
increased use of compulsory powers
under mental health and incapacity law,
with particular concerns about the rise in
detention of young people, particularly
in adult services. It published analysis of
the use of Place of Safety orders under
the Scottish Mental Health Act by the
police, with recommendations to improve
consistency of practice in the future.
That has led to further work reviewing
local Psychiatric Emergency Plans. The
Commission was heavily involved in work
to review the investigation of deaths
of patients in mental health services,
which led to the Government asking it to
develop a new system of review for deaths
of detained patients. The Commission
continued to highlight its concerns about the
number of people with learning disabilities
it visited who continued to be in hospital,
often subject to detention, despite having
been assessed as able to be supported in
the community.
Criminal Justice Inspection Northern
Ireland (CJINI) published two inspection
reports on places of detention in 2018–19. Its
inspection report on Maghaberry Prison was
published in November 2018, and highlighted
the encouraging levels of progress made
in the prison since its previous inspection
in 2015. The report concluded that the
outcomes for men held were some of the
best seen by CJINI in similar prisons in recent
years. Throughout the year, CJINI made
efforts to focus on monitoring the conditions
in Maghaberry and organised a programme
of regular inspections, reviews of progress
visits and unannounced visits to the prison.
101 Scottish Police Authority, 2019, Annual Review 2018-19. Independent Custody Visiting Scotland, http://www.spa.police.uk/
assets/128635/293559/icvannualreview201819 [accessed 04/02/20]
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