CAT/C/42/2 page 17 and support available to the SPT. The SPT also welcomed a new administrative assistant, who has very efficiently and patiently helped the SPT in a wide range of organizational matters. 65. The SPT wishes to place on record its deep gratitude to Ms Kukka Savolainen, the seconded member of staff who worked with the SPT within the OHCHR until March 2009. She has provided the main continuity of staffing since April 2007 and her contribution to the drafting of plenary and visit reports has been invaluable. Her support of the SPT has demonstrated the value of continuity, skill and experience in the special elements of the SPT’s work. 66. On the six SPT visits carried out to date, the SPT has worked with a total of 12 different members of the OHCHR staff. Whereas the SPT is grateful to the individuals concerned for their efforts to provide assistance, it is strongly of the opinion that having new staff with no experience of, or training for, SPT visits on each new visit places the staff members concerned at a distinct disadvantage and under considerable stress. SPT visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty require specific expertise and empirical skills; they are by their very nature liable to include difficult situations which can involve risks to those not familiar with the work. It is not conducive to effective preventive visiting to have new staff members on every visit, however dedicated the individuals may be. This is not the mark of a professional approach to supporting the SPT on visits. 67. During 2008 the SPT experienced significant problems with the process of drafting the second visit report owing to the fact that none of the staff who went on that visit continued to work with the SPT after the visit or were available to assist in the drafting process. The result was that the draft report on the visit to the Maldives, carried out in December 2007, was not ready for plenary consideration until November 2008. 68. The SPT trusts that in future it will be possible for the SPT to benefit from the support of staff members who have past experience of SPT visits and who have shown themselves suited to this specific kind of work in the field. To that end, the SPT looks forward to the provision of a targeted SPT Secretariat. The SPT has been proposing, since its inception a core team of four suitably trained and experienced staff members agreed at the meeting in April 2007 with the then High Commissioner.24 A core team would provide the possibility for a degree of continuity of staff involvement in visits as well as in the processes of planning visits and drafting of reports. At the SPT’s inception the number of States parties was considerably less than at present and the number continues to rise rapidly. Staff provision should be reviewed as the number of States parties increases. C. Budgetary requirements 69. The SPT has been engaged in discussions with the department of the OHCHR responsible for budget and staffing with a view to obtaining a budget capable of supporting the mandate of the SPT in accordance with the requirements of the OPCAT. The SPT is grateful for the provision by members of the department of information relating to costing of SPT visits, which has enabled the SPT to form a clearer picture of the lacunae. 24 2 P-4, 2 P-3 posts, in addition to one GS post.