Section three Looking ahead to 2019-20 Visit from the United Nations Subcommittee for Prevention of Torture On 26 November 2018, the SPT sent confirmation to the UK Government that it would be including the UK in its visiting programme for 2019–20. This announcement came after the SPT invited the MoJ to address its session in Geneva in June 2018. It will be the first formal visit from the UN body to the UK. The SPT conducts visits to member countries to look at the state of detention. It can also advise and assist NPMs during its visit on how to best implement OPCAT within the places of detention they monitor or inspect. The visit from the SPT in 2019–20 is a key milestone for the NPM in its 10 years of existence. It presents the NPM with the chance to account for its work to date, and the report that the SPT will write as a result of its visit will serve as an authoritative account of our work. The SPT will make recommendations about areas in which the NPM must improve, and we expect issues such as our status and resourcing to be raised. We hope the SPT’s report will lead to reinvigorated opportunities to work with the government towards strengthening the NPM. The visit will also draw public attention to the UK NPM and its unique multi-body model, and the SPT’s recommendations will inform our future practice and priorities. Accordingly, the NPM’s primary focus over 2019–20 was to prepare for this important visit. This has meant coming together as an NPM to discuss the ways in which we work individually and collectively to protect the rights of people in detention from ill- treatment. We have worked to promote the visit with the government and other stakeholders, to highlight its importance to our reputation for implementing human rights protections. After the visit, the NPM will dedicate time to considering the SPT’s recommendations and how these need to be captured in our future work. The NPM has also agreed the following plans for our next business year: • T o celebrate the NPM’s 10th year, we will publish a report to mark the anniversary. The short report will illustrate how member organisations work together and across the four nations to prevent ill-treatment and detail how the NPM has become more OPCAT-compliant. • We aim to resume thematic work on ill-treatment, together with academics from Bristol University’s Human Rights Implementation Centre. • The NPM has already begun work to increase our public visibility and raise awareness of OPCAT. In 2019–20 we aim to prepare new and improved training materials on the UK NPM and OPCAT. We also hope to generate more public and media interest in our work to strengthen the understanding of preventive monitoring.