National Preventive Mechanism Seventh Annual Report 2015–16 The UK’s National Preventive Mechanism The UK ratified OPCAT in December 2003 and designated its NPM in March 2009. Designation of the NPM was the responsibility of the UK government and it chose to designate multiple existing bodies rather than create a new, single-body NPM. This took into account the fact that many types of detention in the UK were already subject to monitoring by independent bodies, as envisaged by OPCAT, and the different political, legal and administrative systems in place in the four nations that make up the UK. Designations were made to the NPM in 2009 and 2013, and 20 individual bodies now make up the NPM. Scotland Care Inspectorate (CI) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) Independent Custody Visitors Scotland (ICVS) Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWCS) Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) Independent Monitoring Boards (Northern Ireland) (IMBNI) Northern Ireland Policing Board Independent Custody Visiting Scheme (NIPBICVS) Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) 10 England and Wales Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) Care Quality Commission (CQC) Children’s Commissioner for England (CCE) Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB) Lay Observers (LO) Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) The bodies which make up the UK NPM monitor different types of detention across the jurisdictions, including prisons, police custody, court custody, customs custody facilities, secure accommodation for children, immigration facilities, mental health and military detention, as shown on page 11. The essential requirement of OPCAT ­– that all places of detention are independently monitored – is fulfilled by individual members of the NPM or by members working in partnership with one another. Detailed findings relating to the treatment and conditions of detainees are published in the inspection or annual reports of each NPM member.