Welcome to the UK National Preventive Mechanism
The UK National Preventive Mechanism was established in 2009 to prevent torture and ill treatment of people deprived of their liberty, and to strengthen the protection of people in detention through independent monitoring.
What is the National Preventive Mechanism?
In coordination across the four nations of the UK, the NPM focuses attention on practices in detention that could amount to ill-treatment, and works to ensure its own approaches are consistent with international standards for independent detention monitoring.
Find out moreAbout the NPM
- The NPM was established in March 2009 after the UK ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) in 2003
- The NPM Central Team leads and supports 21 scrutiny bodies across the United Kingdom to ground their work in human rights principles
- According to OPCAT Article 4, NPMs must be able to make unannounced visits to any place where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty
- The UK government must account for the NPM’s ability to perform its functions to the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) and other UN bodies
- The NPM works thematically in areas of concern in places where people are deprived of their liberty in the UK
- There are currently more than 3,500 staff and volunteers undertaking the OPCAT mandate in the UK