National Preventive Mechanism Fifth Annual Report 2013–14 full compliance with OPCAT needs to be achieved across the NPM as a whole. identify ways of strengthening its work over the next five years. As far as the UK NPM is aware, its engagement with the SPT’s self-assessment tool was far more rigorous than any other NPM around the world. Given this, informal feedback on the original tool was provided to the SPT, and the NPM expressed its interest in supporting the SPT to strengthen the document for the future. The Rt. Hon Simon Hughes MP, Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties, reaffirmed his government’s commitment to implementing OPCAT in his opening speech, and gave the UK NPM an opportunity to share its thoughts on what more the government could do to enhance compliance with OPCAT. Malcolm Evans, Chair of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), reinforced the need for the UK NPM to take a preventive approach to its detention monitoring. Graham Morgan, from Action for Mental Health and a former detainee, provided an important reminder to those present that the experience of detention is understood from the perspective of the individual detainee. Deborah Coles, co‑director of the charity INQUEST, called on the NPM to consider playing a greater role in promoting joined-up, cross-sector learning from deaths in custody, and Silvia Casale, a torture prevention expert, reminded attendees of the importance of NPMs around the world in identifying ‘fault lines’ and systemic problems across detention settings. Those present also reflected on the crucial role the UK played in drafting OPCAT, and its current focus on supporting torture prevention work overseas through its foreign policy, as an important backdrop to the work of the NPM domestically. It was agreed that the self-assessment should be run annually, with peer review included in future iterations, as a means to chart progress in fulfilling the NPM’s OPCAT mandate. UK NPM and University of Bristol Human Rights Implementation Centre event ‘The UK’s NPM: Five Years On’ On 8 April 2014 the UK NPM held an event in Bristol to mark five years since its designation. The event was organised and hosted in partnership with the Human Rights Implementation Centre (HRIC) at the University of Bristol.45 The event brought together around 70 attendees, including NPM members, representatives of inspected institutions, government bodies and NGOs from across all four jurisdictions, as well as international human rights bodies and stakeholders.46 It set out to provide an opportunity for these different stakeholders to assess the extent to which the UK NPM is achieving its torture prevention mandate under OPCAT and Reflecting on the first five years of the NPM Almost all of the bodies that now form the UK NPM pre-date their designation as members, and this sets the UK NPM apart 45 The HRIC provides invaluable support and assistance to the NPM on an ad hoc basis. The relationship between both parties is set out in a Memorandum of Understanding and can be found at: http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/ about-hmi-prisons/working-with-partners/#.VGn0TlPp_ld 46 A further write-up of this event will be made available on the UK NPM and HRIC website in the next year. 40