Section three The NPM in 2016–17
of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act
2015 and associated regulations (Part
1), Consultation on the implementation
of certain sections of the Mental Health
(Scotland) Act 2015 and associated
regulations (Part 2) and consultation on
the Scottish Government’s new Mental
Health Strategy).
• Following on from the oral and written
evidence that it provided to Lord Laming’s
inquiry into looked after children and
offending, Ofsted participated in a
cross-sector forum led by the Youth
Justice Board for England and Wales that
considered the over-representation of
children in care in the criminal justice
system and how to improve outcomes for
such children.
• RQIA contributed to Phase 1 of the
development of the draft code of practice
and regulations for the new Mental
Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. The
Act introduces in Northern Ireland for the
first time a legal framework governing
capacity and incapacity.
• The SHRC provided a submission to the
Consultation on the Scottish Government’s
Draft Delivery Plan 2016–2020 in relation
to the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities, commenting
on the need to ensure that people
with mental health conditions who
are detained are placed appropriately
and receive adequate treatment. In
addition, the SHRC provided evidence to
the Scottish Parliament on destitution,
asylum and insecure immigration status in
Scotland.
International scrutiny and
collaboration
Scrutiny
The UK’s record on detention was scrutinised
in several reviews during the year by
UN bodies established to examine the
implementation of human rights treaties.
Committee on the Rights of the Child
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
reviewed the UK’s progress in implementing
the CRC in May 2016. It adopted its
Concluding Observations in June 2016.146
The Children’s Commissioners for England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
submitted a joint shadow report to the
review, as did the SHRC.
The Committee’s Concluding Observations
identified extensive concerns and
recommendations relating to detained
children. These included calls to: abolish all
methods of restraint used against children
for disciplinary purposes and to ban any
technique designed to inflict pain on children;
collect and publish disaggregated data on
the use of restraint and other restrictive
interventions; expedite the prohibition of
placing children with mental health needs in
adult psychiatric wards and police stations;
cease the detention of asylum-seeking
and migrant children (in relation to the
detention of children in short-term holding
facilities, and age-disputed children being
detained in adult facilities); establish the
statutory principle that detention should
be used as a measure of last resort, for
146. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CRC/C/GBR/CO/5), http://www.crae.org.uk/media/93148/UK-concludingobservations-2016.pdf [accessed 13/11/17].
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