Section two The NPM in 2018-19 NPM objectives Each year, the NPM agrees a business plan to guide the work we do and ensure we meet the requirements of OPCAT. In 2018–19 the NPM worked to four objectives, to: • w ork together as members of the NPM to strengthen the protection of those in detention in the UK • ensure every NPM member delivers its own responsibilities under OPCAT • build an NPM that is effective in delivering all the requirements of OPCAT • increase the visibility and awareness of the NPM’s role in prevention, OPCAT, the prohibition of ill-treatment in detention and the Convention Against Torture. Strengthening the NPM Lack of statutory framework We remain concerned that the NPM is still not provided for in legislation. We sought to address the lack of formal legal recognition of the independence and role of the NPM collectively and of its 21 individual members in 2018–19, but we were disappointed by the lack of action by the government to address this significant failing. The NPM wrote to the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Justice Select Committee, who have, in the past, called for the NPM to be placed on a statutory footing.98 We sent a letter to Harriet Harman (See Appendix I), Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, in September 98 2018. In the letter we highlighted that the absence of legislation for the NPM fails to meet the requirements of OPCAT. The NPM also wrote to Bob Neill, Chair of the UK Parliament’s Justice Select Committee, in August 2018 (See Appendix II). Our letter welcomed the Justice Committee’s recommendation to government that the NPM be placed on a definitive statutory basis should legislation on prison reform be brought forward.99 We were pleased that the Justice Committee’s ‘Prison Population 2022’ report, published in April 2019, made a further recommendation to strengthen the statutory foundations of the NPM.100 MoJ/NPM Protocol The MoJ and NPM agreed that it would be useful to draft a Protocol. The NPM considers this an interim step towards, not in place of, legislation for the NPM. Progress towards finalising the protocol has been made during the year. The Protocol will set out, at a high level, the role of the MoJ and NPM in relation to OPCAT, as well as arrangements regarding the membership, governance, budget and structure of the NPM. Funding We are pleased that after submitting a funding proposal to the Scottish Government in July 2018 we secured funding to provide for a part-time Scottish NPM assistant coordinator, who took up post in late 2019. Justice Committee, April 2017, 14th Report – Prison Reform: Part 1 of the Prisons and Courts Bill, Topical Questions, 25 April 2017, Hansard Volume 624, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmjust/1150/1150.pdf [accessed 13/01/20] 99 Ibid 100 Justice Committee, April 2019, 16th Report – Prison population 2022: planning for the future, https://publications. parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmjust/483/483.pdf [accessed 05/12/19]