Section one Context • Revisions to the Mental Health Act Code of Practice were published in January 2015 and apply in England. The revised document includes five new overarching principles that should inform all decisions under the act, and calls on MHA commissioners to consider human rights legislation and international conventions.27 • The Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 introduced provisions about the release and supervision after release of offenders, including those on short sentences. Under the Act, all prisoners, regardless of the length of their sentence, will be subject to a minimum of 12 months supervision and rehabilitation support on their release.28 • Further to this Act, the ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ programme began to be implemented with the reorganisation of rehabilitation services provided through ‘community rehabilitation companies’ (for medium- and low-risk offenders) and the National Probation Service (for high- and very high-risk offenders).29 • The Serious Crime Act 2015 created new offences relating to possession of knives and offensive weapons in prisons and throwing articles into prisons.30 • The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 establishes a duty on specified public bodies, including all prisons, YOIs, STCs and SCHs, to prevent people being drawn into terrorist activity.31 • The Mental Health Scotland Bill was introduced with a view to amending the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, including proposals to make provision about mental health disposals in criminal cases, and change and enhance provisions relating to the rights of the individual person.32 • The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 places additional duties on Scottish ministers and public bodies to ensure children’s rights are integrated in their work, and increases the power of the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People to investigate complaints regarding their rights.33 Taken together, NPM members viewed the legislative developments in Wales as bringing a renewed emphasis on the centrality of outcomes for the citizen and their communities as the measure of success of public services. NPM members’ efforts to strengthen their own inspection frameworks will support these efforts. Plans to build a new women’s prison in Scotland, to replace the Cornton Vale prison, were scrapped and in January the Scottish Government announced plans to consult on the provision of smaller regional and community-based custodial facilities instead. Over the year, a number of high profile cases of sexual abuse and exploitation of children from the past continued to come to light. There were increased efforts to investigate whether public bodies and others had taken their duty of care seriously to protect 27 At: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-mental-health-act-1983 (accessed 14/10/15). 28 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/11/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 29 See: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/transforming-rehabilitation (accessed 14/10/15). 30 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/9/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 31 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/23/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 32 At: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/Bills/78451.aspx#sthash.UKrzXE6P.dpuf (accessed 14/10/15). This became the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015 when it received royal assent on 4 August 2015. 33 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 17