20 years of combating torture: CPT General Report 2008-2009 38. The ECPT obliges Parties to provide the CPT with information available to them which is necessary for the Committee to carry out its task. As is stressed in the Explanatory Report to the Convention, access to information is of great importance to the CPT. Needless to say, all information provided should be accurate. For example, lists of places of deprivation of liberty provided to the Committee should be complete; unfortunately, this is not always the case. During the period covered by this General Report, one CPT visiting delegation discovered a prison establishment that had not been included in the lists provided. In another country, no information was provided on municipal police establishments, notwithstanding that certain of them at least were equipped with cells. In fact, visiting delegations should receive information about all places of deprivation of liberty, including places where persons can be held for short periods of time without being formally detained in a cell. Information provided should also be reliable. On more than one occasion during the last twelve months, a CPT visiting delegation has received inexact information, for example about the use being made of a specific detention area. Attempts to mislead a CPT delegation are obviously not in conformity with the principle of co-operation laid down in the ECPT and inevitably leave a poor impression when they are discovered. To lie to a CPT delegation could in certain cases lead to the Committee making a public statement. 39. The CPT would also like to emphasise that the obligation to provide information to the Committee is not confined to the stage when a visit is carried out. In relation to Article 8, paragraph 2, of the ECPT (which specifically refers to information to be provided to the CPT), the Explanatory Report makes clear that “in view of the particular nature of the visits which the Committee is required to make, … this paragraph applies equally before, during and after visits”. The general obligation of co-operation set out in Article 3 of the ECPT also entails that States should respond to requests for information from the CPT which are related to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Access to such information may well be essential for the Committee to decide whether or not to make use of its power under the Convention to organise a visit. 40. Signs that detained persons have been warned not to make any complaints to a CPT delegation are still detected from time to time. And a visiting delegation recently witnessed for itself a prison officer threatening an inmate for having spoken to the delegation (following the delegation’s intervention, the officer concerned was disciplined). The CPT has made clear in previous General Reports that any intimidatory or retaliatory action against a person before or after contact with one of its delegations is totally unacceptable and could result in the Committee exercising its power to make a public statement. 20