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NPM Bulletin – June 2025

Published:

Welcome

Welcome to the first NPM bulletin of Summer 2025.

The whole NPM team were so saddened to learn the news that long standing RQIA Communications Manager Malachy Finnegan passed away suddenly earlier in the month. I worked with Malachy when we brought our NPM conference to Belfast in 2023. He went above and beyond to make us feel supported and welcomed. Our NPM community of 3500 people has lost a kind and dedicated man. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and RQIA.

Over the past month, we have been busy getting the NPM Reporting Dashboard ready for its public launch in August 2025 (see below for all the details), continuing with extensive work from the Business Plan 2025-26, and working with NPM bodies on priority areas.

The NPM has been engaging with several important reviews, consultations and inquiries. Earlier this month, I met with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) during their ad hoc visit to Scotland examining treatment and conditions in prisons and secure accommodation services. I attended the first Ministerial Accountability Board on deaths in custody in Scotland, where I called for strengthened oversight of the implementation of recommendations. Sherry and I also attended an EU NPM Forum meeting in Strasbourg, where we met with NPMs across Council of Europe member states, sharing best practice and learning opportunities. This quarter, the focus of the meeting was police detention, and we heard many innovative examples of monitoring practice. We also shared NPM findings of police detention visits in the UK, and the current reforms to NPM scrutiny in England and Wales with the custody inspection programme of HMICFRS being folded into the PEEL framework. Our team has continued the Preventive Monitoring Train-the-Trainer programme with custody monitoring managers and we have updated the Resources section of our website, expanding the number and types of resources offered.

Sarah continues to work full speed ahead on populating the recommendations of all 21 NPM bodies into the NPM Reporting Dashboard, while Chelsea and Jane continue to coordinate the regional subgroup and undertake projects on their behalf, and to support the national NPM strategic objectives. Jane is currently working on projects related to the use of force in prisons, scoping the social and welfare detention project and beginning to draft this year’s annual report, while Chelsea is engaged in projects on substance misuse, deaths in custody and secure mental health.

We hope you will join us at the upcoming NPM Reporting Dashboard launch in August, which is detailed below.

As always, we encourage you to share this bulletin with your staff and volunteers so they can stay up to date with the latest NPM news. If you have received this bulletin as a forwarded email and would like to subscribe, please reply to this message.

With best wishes,

Sam Gluckstein, Head of UK NPM

National Subgroups

The NPM Scotland Subgroup met on 29 May, agreeing to new actions on issues including transfer of young people who have recently attained the age of 18 from secure accommodation to prison and our response to recent Government correspondence on international recommendations that have not been implemented. The subgroup also welcomed presentations from Criminal Justice Committee Convenor Audrey Nicoll on the Inquiry into the harm caused by substance misuse in Scottish Prisons, and Ray Jones, Lead Inspector at HMICS, on issues of concern in police custody, which will inform future subgroup efforts. The subgroup’s next meeting will be on 28 August in Glasgow.

The NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup met online on 10 June and discussed progress on the 2025 workplan. The subgroup agreed to add the experience of prisoners held over tariff to the workplan, with actions to be led by the NPM central team and agreed by the NPM Steering Group. The subgroup’s next meeting will be in person, on 16 September. This meeting will primarily focus on children deprived of their liberty in Northern Ireland, and will be joined by representatives of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People.

UK NPM Reporting Dashboard Launch

The UK NPM is delighted to announce the launch of our groundbreaking new database on Wednesday 20th August at 11am BST.

This new tool brings together and codifies all findings from UK NPM bodies, offering public access to the collective insight of more than 3,500 individuals working across the UK’s places of detention. At this launch event, you will:

  • Hear from the team behind the database
  • See a live demonstration of how to explore and interact with the data
  • Have the chance to ask questions and take part in discussion

We invite you to register your attendance, and share the launch details with colleagues you work with, establishments you monitor, and any other interested parties!

Volunteers’ Week

This Volunteers’ Week (2-8 June), we celebrated the contributions of the thousands of volunteers that carry out the NPM mandate, conducting monitoring visits, reporting findings and giving a voice to some of society’s most vulnerable. Volunteers make a real and impactful difference to the lives of those deprived of their liberty, offering support, visibility and dignity to those who often go unheard. Their findings also help shape national conversations and influence policy, driving change at a systemic level. The NPM sends its heartfelt thanks to all volunteers who monitor places of detention and deprivation of liberty!

Screenshot of UKNPM Bluesky post thanking NPM volunteers
Screenshots of other NPM bodies' social media posts thanking NPM volunteers

A few of the many thank you messages sent by NPM constituent bodies during Volunteers Week, including from HMIPS, CJI and ICVA.

Blog: Supporting Victims of Torture

In this month’s blog, we recognise the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and send our support to victims of torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment around the world. The blog also explores what torture really is, and the relevance of this topic in the UK.

Read the full blog: International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Spotlight reports from NPM bodies

Independent Monitoring Board – Annual Report 2024

The Independent Monitoring Board’s 2024 National Annual Report reveals that detention facilities across the UK continue to grapple with deep-rooted issues. Overpopulation continues to affect all detention settings, but is leading to troubling outcomes in immigration detention. Further, the report finds excessively high levels of violence, substance misuse, people at risk of suicide or self-harm and use of force.

Read here: 2024 IMB National Annual Report

HM Inspectorate of Prisons – Building Trust: the importance of positive relationships in young offender institutions

This thematic report reveals that the failure to foster positive relationships affects the ability to run safe establishments in which children can engage with education, healthcare and offending behaviour programmes, as well to defuse conflict and violence.

Read the full report: Building trust: the importance of positive relationships in young offender institutions

Latest news from NPM bodies

  • On 5 June CJI launched its excellent new website!
  • CJI Chief Inspector Jacqui Durkin spoke at the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) Correctional Research Symposium 2025 in May about the transformation journey of Hydebank Wood to become the first Secure College in the UK and recent inspection findings. Jacqui also participated on a panel as part of a Prison Oversight: Improving Rights in Europe (POIRE) research project on raising awareness of the NPM.
Jacqui Durkin of CJI at the International Corrections and Prison Association Correctional Research symposium 2025

Jacqui Durkin of CJI at the International Corrections and Prison Association Correctional Research symposium 2025

  • CJI Chief Inspector Jacqui Durkin and Lead Inspector David MacAnulty briefed the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Justice on CJI’s Inspection Report on Transforming Justice in Northern Ireland – a strategic overview. Jacqui also spoke about this report at the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development’s 28th Annual Conference in Dublin.
  • HIW recently published an Operational Plan for 2025-2026. The plan outlines current priorities and actions, and builds on the strong foundations of the existing Strategy, which has been extended by one year.
  • HIW also recently exhibited at the Mental Health and Wellbeing Show on 16 May at Cardiff City Stadium, an all-day event featuring exhibitors, speakers and experts promoting positive mental health and wellbeing.
HIW team at the Mental Health and Wellbeing Show in Cardiff

HIW at the Mental Health and Wellbeing Show in Cardiff

If we missed anything, or if you have a report, blog post or news story you would like to share in the next bulletin, please send us an email.

Upcoming events and activities

20 August 2025: UK NPM Reporting Dashboard International Launch, Online

28 August 2025: NPM Scotland Subgroup Q3 meeting, Glasgow
29 August 2025: NPM Steering Group Q3 meeting, Online

6 September 2025: ICVS Annual Conference, Edinburgh

16 September 2025: NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup Q3 meeting, Belfast

External resources of interest

Newly launched Know-My-Rights.org.uk provides support to children and young people detained in police custody, including information on legal rights during and after arrest and in voluntary interviews, and a tool to search for free defence solicitors across the UK. Thank you to ICVA for sharing this resource!

The Forensic Network (Scotland) has launched new Government-endorsed national Guidance for Transfers from Custodial Settings to Mental Health Services, setting out clear processes for referral, assessment, transfer, and escalation, and including tools to support monitoring and coordination between the NHS, Scottish Prison Service (SPS), and criminal justice partners.

Thank you for reading!

This bulletin is compiled each month by the NPM Central Team. If you have any news you would like to share, please let us know.

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