National Preventive Mechanism Sixth Annual Report 2014–15 measures have led to significant changes to the delivery of criminal justice, including the budgets of NPM members. There were many major developments in legislation and policy during the year affecting both the services that NPM members inspect and their own monitoring functions. • The Social Care and Wellbeing (Wales) Act became law on 1 May 2014. The act provides the legal framework for improving the wellbeing of people who need care and support, and carers who need support, and for transforming social services in Wales; it will come into effect from April 2016.20 • The Immigration Act 2014 introduced limitations on the right to appeal Home Office immigration decisions to an independent tribunal, among other provisions.21 • The Children and Families Act 2014 changed the Children’s Commissioner for England’s primary function, which now involves ‘promoting and protecting the rights of children’ with regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, rather than ‘promoting awareness of the views and interests of children’. It entered into force on 1 April 2014.22 • The Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Bill, introduced in February 2015, seeks to reform the regulatory and inspection regime for both care and support services and local authority social services functions in Wales. • The Public Services Reform (Inspection and Monitoring of Prisons) (Scotland) Order 201523 introduced a new system of independent monitoring of prisons to replace the existing Prison Visiting Committees, and passed responsibility for monitoring legalised police cells24 to custody visitors. It will enter into force on 31 August 2015. • The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 received Royal Assent in February 2015 and established secure colleges as new places of detention for young people, setting out powers for HMI Prisons and Ofsted to inspect secure colleges if they are ever developed.25 The Act also introduced mandatory prison sentences for those aged 16 years or older convicted of a second or subsequent offence of carrying a knife. • The Care Act 2014 came into effect in April 2015, introducing a statutory framework for the delivery of social care in prisons and marking a significant change in the way prisons arrange and provide social care for offenders. • The Revised Code of Practice for the Detention, Treatment and Questioning of Persons by Police Officers (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Code C) was issued in May 2014. This includes the revision to the law made in the previous year that allows 17-year-olds the right of access to an appropriate adult when in police custody.26 20 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2014/4/contents (accessed 14/10/15). 21 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/22/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 22 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/contents/enacted (accessed 14/10/15). 23 At: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2015/39/contents/made (accessed 14/10/15). 24 Legalised police cells are where prisoners can be held for up to 30 days. They are found in police stations not near to prisons. 25 In July 2015, the Minister for Prisons, Andrew Selous MP, announced to parliament that the government would no longer go ahead with the creation of a ‘secure college pathfinder’ and work on the proposed site in the Midlands would cease. 26 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364707/PaceCodeC2014.pdf 16