Section four Appendices Scottish Human Rights Commission) operate across a range of settings or with powers that are much wider in scope than those under OPCAT. Given this, UK NPM members will work towards making a clearer distinction between the human resources they apply to NPM activities and those applied to their broader functions. UK NPM members agree to work towards a reduction in their reliance on seconded staff allocated to NPM activities. Members have been encouraged to make more specific commitments in this regard if they feel this is appropriate. In addition, the UK NPM will develop a set of principles to reduce the possibility of conflicts of interest of seconded staff across the NPM. This set of principles will be applied while members take action to reduce their reliance on seconded staff, and in the instances where NPM members find it impossible to find staff with the capabilities and professional knowledge necessary (Art.18.2 OPCAT) to fulfil their inspection mandate from outside the organisations that may be subject to inspection. This is of particular relevance to the inspection of health settings, which requires current clinical expertise usually gained only through working as health service providers themselves. In these specific instances, NPM members will account for the efforts they have made to source non-seconded staff, and to ensure adherence to the set of principles. The UK NPM welcomes the Committee against Torture’s recognition of the need to ensure that the NPM is adequately resourced, and considers that this recommendation should apply to the resourcing made available for each of the NPM members as well as the NPM as a whole. Yours sincerely, Nick Hardwick HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, on behalf of the UK’s National Preventive Mechanism 61