Section two The fifth year the welfare of vulnerable people in police custody. Led by HMIC, this thematic inspection will be conducted jointly with HMI Prisons. It was decided that the work would focus on those with mental health problems, those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds and children, and would highlight good practice, identify areas for improvement and make national recommendations. The report on this thematic inspection will be published by the end of March 2015. Also of relevance to HMIC was the publication of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, which provided further support to its focus during inspections on evaluating police awareness of mental health crises and the effectiveness of multi-agency working to divert people in urgent need of mental health care away from police custody. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland (HMICS) carried out its first inspection of police custody since the creation of a national police service, Police Scotland, on 1 April 2013. Custody is now managed nationally, which affords opportunities to improve standards and consistency and implement good practice across Scotland. HMICS used a new custody inspection framework, through which it focused on the treatment of and conditions for detainees, as well as broader issues such as the leadership, governance, resources and partnerships of the national Custody Division. During the course of its inspection, HMICS visited 22 custody centres across Scotland, spoke to detainees, observed key processes, examined custody records and interviewed staff and stakeholders.28 HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) continued its largely unannounced programme of inspections, and published 98 inspection reports over the year. These evidenced a sharp decline in safety-related outcomes across its inspections, with 16 of the 51 full prison inspections demonstrating safety outcomes as either not sufficiently good or poor. HMI Prisons developed new inspection criteria (known as ‘Expectations’) for the women’s prison estate, began to revise its Expectations for police and court custody, and broadened its existing military detention Expectations to cover service custody facilities. These were put to broad consultation and reflected evolving human rights standards. HMI Prisons used evidence generated through its inspections to highlight specific issues faced by different groups in prisons, focusing on ex-service personnel and Gypsy, Romany and Traveller prisoners. Recommendations for addressing their specific needs were made in two findings papers.29 Finally, HMI Prisons continued to work with the Bahrain Human Rights Ombudsman, supporting its efforts to develop OPCAT-compliant inspections. HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) conducted a process to revise the standards it had used in the inspection of prisons in Scotland since 2006 and which it considered no longer adequately reflected the requirements of prisons inspection. Consultation was conducted with practitioners (including other NPM members), academics and others with an interest in human rights and how prisons are run. The evolving standards will be published in the 28 The final inspection report, published in the subsequent business year, can be found at http://hmics.org/sites/default/files/ publications/Thematic%20Inspection%20of%20Police%20Custody%20Arrangements%20in%20Scotland.pdf 29 http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/people-in-prison-ex-service-personnel-a-findings-paper-byhm-inspectorate-of-prisons/#.VHMyo1Pp_lc and http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/inspections/people-inprison-gypsies-romany-and-travellers-a-findings-paper-by-hm-inspectorate-of-prisons/#.VHMzJ1Pp_lc 21

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