CAT/OP/GBR/RONPM/1 force and army police hold military personnel who have been arrested. However, the visits take place only upon agreement and by invitation from the armed forces, which is incompatible with the Optional Protocol’s purpose and objectives.12 41. Moreover, no member of the national preventive mechanism has explicit powers to visit extraterritorial places of detention, including temporary detention facilities set up by the State party’s military abroad,13 the overseas territories and Crown dependencies of the United Kingdom, which leaves a significant territorial gap in the State party’s obligation to protect persons deprived of their liberty from torture and ill-treatment. 42. The Subcommittee notes the recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment regarding the role of the national preventive mechanism in overseas territories, ensuing from the Committee’s visit to the sovereign base areas on Cyprus. The Committee called on the authorities of the United Kingdom to adopt specific legislative powers for the mandate of the national preventive mechanism, which should include the automatic right to visit all places of deprivation in the United Kingdom, as well as those in British overseas territories and the sovereign base areas.14 43. The Subcommittee emphasizes that, in order to meet the requirements of the Optional Protocol, a national preventive mechanism must have the ability to conduct unannounced visits to all places of detention, and to have access to all information referring to the treatment of detainees and the conditions of their detention. In that regard, the Subcommittee fully supports the mechanism in its efforts to communicate its concerns about the limitations on access to military detention facilities, as well as the lack of independent monitoring of places of deprivation of liberty across all of the State party’s overseas territories and Crown dependencies. 44. The Subcommittee recommends that the national preventive mechanism continue actively engaging with the State party to gain unhindered and immediate access to all places of deprivation of liberty, defined in article 4 of the Optional Protocol. In this connection, the Subcommittee emphasizes that the State is to allow visits to any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence. Therefore, any place in which a person is deprived of liberty or where a person might be deprived of liberty should fall within the scope of the national preventive mechanism. 45. The Subcommittee would welcome the mechanism’s views on workable solutions to ensure appropriate preventive oversight across the overseas territories and Crown dependencies. The Subcommittee will raise these concerns in its report to the State party. B. Independence 46. The independence of the national preventive mechanism and its members is a fundamental principle that enables mechanisms to effectively prevent torture and illtreatment. In this connection, the Optional Protocol requirements refer specifically to the mechanism’s functional independence, the independence of its personnel and its financial autonomy. 12 13 14 Optional Protocol, art. 20. In its concluding observations, and in reference to the State party’s military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Committee against Torture expressed concern at the findings contained in the 2018 reports of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, issued following its inquiry into the actions of the United Kingdom security and intelligence agencies in relation to the handling of detainees overseas and rendition. See CAT/C/GBR/CO/6, paras. 32–35. “Report to the Government of the United Kingdom on the visit to the United Kingdom sovereign base areas on Cyprus carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 9 to 11 February 2017”, p. 10. 9