PERSONNEL AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES + whom the enquiry was sent supplied the National Agency with information. Bremen, North RhineWestphalia and Thuringia did not respond; the information supplied by some of the other Länder was incomplete. According to the currently available information, reception centres are not places of detention within the meaning of Article 4 para. 1 of the OPCAT; however, comprehensive responses from all the Länder are needed in order to be able to reach a final assessment in this regard. In addition to its visits, the National Agency is tasked with making suggestions and observations regarding both existing and draft legislation. + + 1.3 – POWERS + Pursuant to the rules set out in the OPCAT, the Federal Government and the Länder grant the National Agency the following rights: + + Access to all information concerning the number of persons being deprived of their liberty at places of detention as defined in Article 4 of the OPCAT, as well as the number of places of detention and their location; Access to all information referring to the treatment of these persons as well as their conditions of detention; Access to all places of detention, their installations and facilities; The opportunity to hold private interviews with persons deprived of their liberty without witnesses, either personally or, where deemed necessary, through an interpreter, as well as with any other persons whom the national preventive mechanism believes may supply relevant information; The liberty to choose the places it wishes to visit and whom its wishes to interview; To maintain contact with the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, to send it information and to meet with it. In accordance with Article 21 para. 1 of the OPCAT, no person who has communicated any information to the National Agency may be prejudiced in any way or subject to any sanctions. The members and staff of the National Agency are also obliged to maintain secrecy beyond their term of office. 2 – PERSONNEL AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES When they were first established the Federal Agency consisted of one honorary member, the Joint Commission of four honorary members. It proved impossible for the two bodies to fulfil the official mandate resulting from the OPCAT under these preconditions; more specifically, they were unable to conduct regular visits as required. Not only were the five honorary members unable to visit even an approximately representative number of the total of around 13,000 facilities, the Joint Commission was also unable to visit specific types of facilities because it did not have any members with the relevant professional background. The National Agency has repeatedly drawn attention to this matter, for instance in its Annual Reports, and has called on the competent bodies to increase its personnel and financial resources. Similar calls have been made at national level, including by the German Institute for Human Rights 1 and several non-governmental organisations. The National Agency’s personnel and financial resources have also repeatedly come under criticism at international level. The SPT, for example, found fault with the National Agency’s budgetary and personnel 2 resources during its visit to Germany in April 2013. The Federal Govern-ment responded to the criticism in June 2013 by appointing a Deputy Director to the Federal Agency. In June 2014 the 85th Conference of Ministers of Justice of the Länder then adopted a resolution to double the number of members of the Joint Commission to a total of eight. The additional members were proposed by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social and Family Affairs, and the Ministry of the Interior so as to boost the Joint Commission’s specialist knowledge in areas in which 1 Follmar-Otto, Petra: Die National Agency zur Verhütung von Folter fortentwickeln!, Berlin: Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte, 2013 2 CAT/OP/DEU/1, paragraph 19 et seqq. 11