obligation for health-care professionals working in prisons or other places of deprivation of liberty when they gather such information. In fact, such an obligation already exists under the law of many States visited by the CPT, but is often not fully respected in practice. In several recent visit reports, the CPT has recommended that existing procedures be reviewed in order to ensure that whenever injuries are recorded by a health-care professional which are consistent with allegations of illtreatment made by a detained person, that information is immediately and systematically brought to the attention of the relevant authority, regardless of the wishes of the person concerned. If a detained person is found to bear injuries which are clearly indicative of ill-treatment (e.g. extensive bruising of the soles of the feet) but refuses to reveal their cause or gives a reason unrelated to ill-treatment, his/her statement should be accurately documented and reported to the authority concerned together with a full account of the objective medical findings. 78. The “relevant authority” to which the health-care professional’s report should be sent is first and foremost the independent body empowered to carry out an official investigation into the matter and, if appropriate, bring criminal charges. Other authorities to be informed could include bodies responsible for disciplinary investigations or for monitoring the situation of persons detained in the establishment where ill-treatment may have occurred. The report should also be made available to the detained person concerned and to his/her lawyer. The actual mechanism for transmission of the report to the relevant authority(ies) will vary from country to country in the light of organisational structures and may well not involve direct communication between the health-care professional and that authority. The report might be transmitted through the hierarchy of the health-care professional (e.g. a Medical Department at ministerial level) or the management of the detention facility in which he/she works (e.g. prison director). However, whichever approach is followed, the rapid transmission of the report to the relevant authority must be ensured. 79. A corollary of the automatic reporting obligation referred to in paragraph 77 is that the health-care professional should advise the detained person concerned of the existence of that obligation, explaining that the writing of such a report falls within the framework of a system for preventing ill-treatment and that the forwarding of the report to the relevant authority is not a substitute for the lodging of a complaint in proper form. The appropriate moment to Effective investigation of ill-treatment – Guidelines ► Page 132