Section two The NPM in 2018-19 Secretariat organise visits to places of detention according to risk and enhance the training given to volunteers. The IMB also began a project to review the number of volunteers on each of its monitoring boards and to update its National Monitoring Framework to ensure the number and nature of monitoring visits to prisons and immigration removal centres delivers on the NPM responsibilities of prevention, independence, and a commitment to OPCAT. There were several developments in the Lay Observers (LO) organisation in 2018–19. The LO National Council expanded, with two new members appointed in the year. LO monitoring of the transportation of people held in court custody to prison was strengthened and extended. In October 2018, LO also introduced a revised set of expectations, along with a new reporting form, for volunteers to use during visits to court custody. As a result of LO reports on health care issues, the organisation was invited to be a representative to an NHS England group that examines health care needs in court custody. Ofsted strengthened its oversight of the secure children’s estate by increasing capacity in its inspection team, appointing a new Senior Officer to its secure estate work who will liaise with government departments and stakeholders and represent Ofsted within the NPM. Following this, Ofsted’s work on secure children’s homes moved to a regionalised model, meaning that regional managers are now operationally responsible for regulatory and inspection work while the Senior Officer retains a national oversight. Ofsted has retained a specialist national secure estate inspection team within this model. Ofsted also published two new guidance documents for inspectors in the reporting year. The revised Joint Inspection Framework for the inspection of secure training centres, published in March 2019, has a sharpened focus on the experiences and progress of children. Ofsted’s enhanced guidance for the inspection of secure children’s homes as part of the Social Care Common Inspection Framework, also published March 2019, reflects the specialist and unique nature of secure provision. The government had not filled the role of Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (IRTL) during the reporting year. This meant that the liaison between IRTL and ICVA to report on the conditions in detention for those detained under terrorism legislation was temporarily suspended, with ICVA supporting Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to ensure effective scrutiny and reporting on those detained under terrorism law until the post was filled. Jonathan Hall QC was appointed to the role on 29 May 2019 and in November 2019 submitted a draft of his first annual report (on the operation of the Terrorism Acts in 2018) to the Home Office for security and fact checking. It will be published by the Government in due course. The report will include consideration of the role played by independent custody visitors, and of the report submitted by HMI Prisons and HMICFRS in 1 August 2019, and whether there is any need to change the law governing the detention of terrorist suspects. 45