Written Ministerial Statement – 3 December 201348 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims (Damian Green): My right honourable and noble friend the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement. ‘The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT), which the UK ratified in December 2003, requires States Parties to establish a ‘National Preventative Mechanism’ (NPM) to carry out visits to places of detention in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Government established the UK NPM in March 2009 (Hansard 31 March 2009, Vol. 490, Part No. 57, Column 56WS). I am informing the House that the following three organisations are formally designated as additional members of the UK NPM: • Lay Observers, in England and Wales; • Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland, better known as the Care Inspectorate (instead of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, which no longer exists), in Scotland; • Independent Custody Visitors Scotland, in Scotland.’ 48 HC Col 41WS, 03 December 2013. 48