Section one Context The Public Services Reform (Inspection and Monitoring of Prisons) (Scotland) Order 2015 replaced prison visiting committees with a new system of monitors under the auspices of HMIPS, and gave responsibility to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland to appoint prison monitoring coordinators.44 In a similar vein, the Harris Review recommended that the responsibility for the oversight and funding of the IMBs should transfer to HMI Prisons.45 The NPM welcomes explicit references to OPCAT and the visiting role of the UN SPT introduced in the Public Services Reform (Inspection and Monitoring of Prisons) (Scotland) Order 2015.46 The NPM also welcomes the explicit reference to OPCAT (and the Care Quality Commission’s role as part of the NPM) in the new Mental Health Act Code of Practice. A Joint Ministerial Council Communiqué was agreed by political leaders and representatives of the UK and the overseas territories in December 2014. This included a commitment to extend core UN human rights conventions to the territories, but no explicit reference to OPCAT which was disappointing.47 The sharing of best practice on prison management between the overseas territories and the UK is to be welcomed, but falls short of the standards required by OPCAT. In July 2014, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons (England and Wales) wrote to the then Secretary of State for Defence expressing disappointment with the announcement that the Baha Mousa inquiry recommendation that HMI Prisons should conduct independent inspection of the UK’s Afghanistan detention facilities was no longer necessary. While the UK presence in Afghanistan was winding down, the letter expressed the importance that the principle of independent inspection of UK-controlled places of detention overseas should be established and applied on future occasions where this occurs. HMI Prisons actively sought the inclusion of powers to inspect military detention into the five-yearly Armed Forces Bill, in order to put existing arrangements on a statutory footing. As this report was being finalised, HMI Prisons was told that the government no longer intended to put the inspection of military detention onto a statutory footing, which was disappointing. 44 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2015/39/contents/made (accessed 14/10/15). 45 The Harris Review (2015), Changing prisons, saving lives: report of the independent review into self-inflicted deaths in custody of 18-24 year olds. 46 This is the second reference to OPCAT in NPM members’ statutes, the first being in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act (93). 47 At: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/388001/JMC_Communique_FINAL.pdf (accessed 14/10/15). 19