Section four Detainees under escort During a period of detention, a detainee may be moved from one place of detention to another. For example, a person may first be detained in police custody, before appearing in court and then being remanded to prison; they may be moved from one prison to another; or they may be transferred from prison to hospital to attend an appointment. While escorted from one place to another, the person remains deprived of their liberty and under the control of the state. Article 4 of OPCAT requires that NPMs should visit any place where people are, or may be, deprived of their liberty. A deprivation of liberty is described as ‘any form of detention’ and is not restricted to a fixed place of detention, such as a prison or secure psychiatric facility. The periods during which a detainee is escorted should, therefore, be subject to independent and regular monitoring. Several members of the NPM carry out such monitoring, with some having a specific statutory duty to do so. For example, HMIPS, whose primary role is to inspect prisons in Scotland, also has a duty to ‘inspect the conditions in which prisoners are transported or held in pursuance of prisoner escort arrangements’.16 HMIP, whose role includes monitoring detainees held under immigration law, has a specific duty to monitor the treatment and conditions of such detainees when they are under escort. Detainees may be particularly vulnerable while they are being escorted to, from or between places of detention. The escorting authorities must strike a balance between transporting detainees securely, and doing so safely and humanely and without resorting to disproportionate security measures. Taking into account monitoring activities carried out by the NPM members in 2011–12, we have chosen to highlight two key escorting issues: • the escorting of prisoners between places of detention in the criminal justice system in Scotland and in England and Wales17 • the escorting of detainees being removed from the UK (‘overseas escorts’). Escorts in the criminal justice system The escorting of the majority of detainees in the criminal justice system is carried out on behalf of the state by private contractors in both Scotland, and in England and Wales. In both jurisdictions, escorting contracts were re-tendered and allocated to new providers during 2011–12. Scotland During 2011–12, HMIPS carried out an inspection of the conditions in which prisoners were transported and held in sheriff and justice of the peace courts throughout Scotland. This followed a previous inspection of the conditions under which prisoners were escorted, published in 2007. The escorts subject to inspection were moves from court to prison, and from prison to court. During its inspections of prisoner escorts, HMIPS was guided by inspection criteria relating to safety and to decency, humanity and respect for legal rights: • Safety: The individual prisoner should be safe from harm by others, safe from self-harm and, as far as is possible, be managed in such a way that any risk that they pose to others is assessed and appropriate interventions are put in place to respond to those risks. 16 Section 7(2) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 as amended by section 103(2)(b) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. 17 Escorts in the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland are inspected by CJINI. Its most recent inspection report was 27 published in October 2010 and was cited in the NPM’s second annual report covering 2010–11.