Section five Appendices Appendix III Guidance on ensuring the independence of NPM personnel Ensuring the independence of NPM personnel Guidance for members of the UK National Preventive Mechanism Background 1. The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT), under which the UK National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) is established, sets out the requirement: States parties shall guarantee the functional independence of the national preventive mechanisms as well as the independence of their personnel. (Art.18) 2. This requirement has been further elaborated on by the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture in its 2010 Guidelines on national preventive mechanisms (CAT/OP/12/5): 18. The State should ensure the independence of the NPM by not appointing to it members who hold positions which could raise questions of conflicts of interest. 19. Members of NPMs should likewise ensure that they do not hold or acquire positions which raise questions of conflicts of interest. 30. The NPM should carry out all aspects of its mandate in a manner which avoids actual or perceived conflicts of interest. 3. In 2013, the UN Committee against Torture, the official UN body that oversees states parties’ progress in implementing the UN Convention against Torture and the Optional Protocol, reviewed the UK. During this review it raised the following concern and recommendation: 14. The Committee, fully cognisant of the State party’s willingness to promote experience sharing, notes that the practice of seconding State officials working in places of deprivation of liberty to National Preventive Mechanism’ bodies raises concerns as to the guarantee of full independence to be expected from such body (art. 2). The Committee recommends that the State party end the practice of seconding individuals working in places of deprivation of liberty to National Preventive Mechanism’ bodies. […] 4. The UK NPM comprises 20 different bodies, each with different practices on the use of secondees. A survey by NPM 73