A/73/44 23. As at 18 May 2018, the Committee had received a total of 428 reports and had examined 410; there were 26 States parties with overdue initial reports and 39 States parties with overdue periodic reports (see the status of reports on the Committee web page). A. Invitation to submit periodic reports 24. Further to its decision taken at its forty-first session,1 the Committee continued, at its sixty-first, sixty-second and sixty-third sessions, to invite States parties, in the last paragraph of the concluding observations, to submit their next periodic reports within a four-year period from the adoption of the concluding observations, and to indicate the due date of the next report in the same paragraph. 25. In addition, further to its decision taken at its forty-seventh session,2 the Committee continued, at its sixty-first, sixty-second and sixty-third sessions, to invite States parties to accept, within one year from the adoption of the concluding observations, to report under the optional reporting procedure, or, if a State party has already accepted to report under the procedure, to indicate that the Committee will submit to the State party, in due course, a list of issues prior to the submission of its next periodic report. B. Simplified reporting procedure 26. The Committee welcomes the fact that a high number of States parties have accepted the simplified reporting procedure, which consists of the preparation and adoption of a list of issues to be transmitted to States parties prior to the submission of a State party’s periodic report (known as the list of issues prior to reporting). The procedure is aimed at assisting States parties to fulfil their reporting obligations, as it strengthens the cooperation between the Committee and States parties.3 While the Committee understands that, since 2007, the adoption of lists of issues prior to reporting has facilitated the States parties’ reporting obligations, it nonetheless wishes to emphasize that the procedure of drafting lists of issues prior to reporting has increased its workload substantially, as their preparation requires more work than the lists of issues following the submission of a State party’s report. That is particularly significant in a Committee with such a small membership. 27. At its sixty-second session, the Committee adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to the States parties that had accepted the invitation to submit their next report, due in 2019, under that procedure: Austria, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. It also adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to two States parties with long overdue initial reports, Malawi and Somalia, that had accepted the simplified reporting procedure. Those lists of issues prior to reporting were transmitted to the respective States parties. 28. At its sixty-third session, the Committee adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to the States parties that had accepted the invitation to submit their next report, due in 2019, under that procedure: Azerbaijan, Denmark, Jordan and Liechtenstein. It also adopted lists of issues prior to reporting with regard to two States parties, Andorra and Thailand, that had accepted the simplified reporting procedure. 29. At the retreat on its working methods, the Committee decided to offer the simplified reporting procedure to States parties with long overdue initial reports (two States per year). It also decided to establish a working group to contribute to a substantive evaluation of the simplified reporting procedure. The Committee took into account the report of the secretariat on the status of the optional reporting procedure (CAT/C/47/2) and the note by the secretariat on the simplified reporting procedure (HRI/MC/2014/4) issued following the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 68/268. At its fifty-fifth session, the Committee held a discussion on a preliminary evaluation of the simplified reporting procedure. 1 2 3 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fourth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/64/44), para. 26. Ibid., Sixty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/67/44), para. 33. Ibid., Sixty-sixth Session, Supplement No. 44 (A/66/44), paras. 28–35. 5