NPM Bulletin – December 2024
Welcome
Welcome to the sixth and final NPM bulletin of 2024. As the year comes to a close, I have been reflecting on how much the NPM has grown in 2024. This year we developed a stronger collective voice, agreed on a practicable definition of detention to guide scrutiny efforts, launched new preventive guidance and a training resources hub for NPM staff and volunteers, expanded our annual conference to include operational team members, welcomed a new Chair, and engaged in international collaborations with treaty bodies and other NPMs to strengthen safeguards against torture and ill treatment globally. Scrutiny of all places of deprivation of liberty has continued in a complex political environment, and our 3500 monitors continue to report findings and give a voice to some of the most vulnerable in society. It has been a busy year!
The Scotland and Northern Ireland subgroups further exemplified what we can achieve by working cooperatively and collectively, as members engaged in joint inspections, collaborative and complimentary projects, collective event planning, and open information sharing and strategising to influencing change.
As we began to pen the 2025-26 business plan a few weeks ago, I was pleased that both the Central Team and the Steering Group had a strong sense that the last two years of activity had put the UK NPM in excellent stead, with increased credibility, capacity and collective capability, to have an even greater impact.
There is much to celebrate and to build upon as we head into the new year. The NPM Central Team would like to thank you for all your efforts and support, and wish you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year.
As always, we invite you to please cascade this bulletin to your staff and volunteers so that they can stay current on the latest NPM news. If you have received a forwarded copy of this bulletin and would like to be added to the subscription list, please reply to this email.
With warm wishes for an excellent 2025, very best,
Sam Gluckstein, Head of UK NPM
National Subgroups
The Scotland Subgroup met on 14 November, welcoming new Chair Angela O’Hagan, and two new delegates, Charlotte Wilson of the Care Inspectorate and Nick Hobbs of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland. The subgroup is undertaking a desktop research project with regards to the effectiveness of efforts taken by duty bearers to address rising deaths in custody in Scotland.
The Northern Ireland Subgroup will hold its final meeting of the year on 12 December to finalise strategy for its 2025 objectives relating to information gaps on deaths in detention and serious adverse incidents, and personality disorder in custody. A meeting was held with Woodlands Juvenile Justice leaders to discuss providing routine monitoring information in support of the subgroup business plan.
Blog: Celebrating Human Rights Day 2024
As part of International Human Rights Day on 10 December, the NPM commemorated the 40th anniversary of the UN Convention against Torture and the 15th anniversary of the UK National Preventive Mechanism. This edition of the NPM blog considered the improvements made to the treatment of people deprived of their liberty in the UK since the designation of NPM bodies, but focussed particularly on the issues that remain unresolved. Read the blog to learn more, and also take a look at NPM bodies’ outputs on Human Rights Day 2024 shared on social media, including CJI, SHRC, and Care Inspectorate’s 16 Days of Activism.
Follow us on Bluesky and LinkedIn!
In addition to our website and Twitter, we the UK NPM has now launched Bluesky and LinkedIn accounts – we invite you to follow us!
International update
The NPM has had two key international engagements over the last month. On 12 November, the European Regional Team of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) hosted a webinar on NPM independence, at which Sam and Sherry spoke about the UK NPM’s approach to independence and effectiveness.
In the first week of December, Sam was hosted by Ukraine’s Parliamentary Ombudsman for Human Rights in Kyiv, where he met with the Ukrainian NPM, the UNODC, UN Monitoring Group, civil society organisations, embassy colleagues, and others. The Ombudsman held a conference – 2014-2024 Reclaiming Human Rights, Preserving Democracy – with an opening address by President Zelensky, which focussed on the widespread systemic torture of prisoners of war by Russia.
Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use
The Scottish Government has launched a National Collaborative Charter of Rights for People Affected by Substance Use 2024, with the goal of supporting people affected by substance use and changing the culture from criminalisation and stigma towards public health and human rights. The charter received full support from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in a recent address.
Spotlight reports
Care Inspectorate Wales – Annual report 2023-24
CIW has published their Annual Report 2023-24, in which the Chief Inspector remarked that “Local authorities continue to report on long delays in allocating, assessing and authorising Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) applications, resulting in many people in Wales being deprived of their liberty, with no legal protection in place and no opportunity to challenge whilst waiting for a decision to be made.” Read the full report: Annual Report 2023-24
Independent Monitoring Boards – Breaking point: the impact of a crumbling prison estate on prisoners
The IMB recently published an in-depth account of years of “alarming physical decline of the prison estate”, the IMB report highlights Boards’ observations of how chronic underinvestment and short-term solutions have compromised the resilience of facilities, creating unhygienic, and sometimes dangerous or inhumane living conditions. Read the full report: Breaking point: the impact of a crumbling prison estate on prisoners
The Care Inspectorate – Annual report on restrictive practices
The Care Inspectorate published its first annual report on restrictive practices used in Scotland’s residential childcare settings on 27 November. The report sets out data on recorded incidents of physical restraint and seclusion notified to the Care Inspectorate by residential care services for children and young people. Read the full report: Restrictive practice 2023 – a statistical bulletin
Latest news from NPM bodies
- People news:
- Jacqui Durkin was re-appointed as Chief Inspector of CJIfor a three-year term commencing November 2024. A new Prisoner Ombudsman for Northern Ireland took up post in November 2024 and Jacqui Durkin held a handover meeting to finish the period of covering the office.
- Sir Julian Hartley started as CQC’s new Chief Executive in December 2024. Sir Julian has been the Chief Executive of NHS Providers since February 2023, prior to which he had a distinguished career as Chief Executive of several organisations, most recently ten years as Chief Executive of Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
- David Whalley has been appointed as Chair of the Lay Observers’ National Council by The Secretary of State for Justice. Mr Whalley has been a Lay Observer since 2013. He started his career as a schoolteacher, and has also held the roles of head teacher, Ofsted inspector and Council Leader.
- Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) published itsAnnual Report 2023-2024, which provides an overview of all care service inspections, including secure services.
- The Children’s Commissioner for England published Children with complex needs who are deprived of liberty: Interviews with children to understand their experiences of being deprived of their liberty
- CJI published inspection reports for Hydebank Wood Secure College and Women’s Prison, in partnership with HMI Prisons, RQIA and the Education and Training Inspectorate. This is the first time an assessment of “good” has been achieved against all four HMIP healthy prison tests at the same time.
- CJI has also released two new podcasts and a video message.
- CQC published the Evaluation findings on assessor and inspector roles, following a change which split the previous role of inspector into the 2 new separate roles of assessor and inspector.
- HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published an Inspection report on police custody suites in Thames Valley Police, conducted jointly with CQC, raising one main cause of concern: “The force doesn’t have enough oversight of custody services to make sure it can protect the safety and well-being of detainees.” It also identified 15 areas for improvement.
- HMIP’s annual review of survey findings from children living in young offender institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs) in England and Wales in 2023-24, found that children spent the majority of their time locked in their cells, with little done to address their offending. When they were able to mix with other children on the wings, this was often marred by conflict and violence. Inspectors judged that only Parc YOI was safe and that no YOIs were providing adequate education.
- HMIP has published several inspection reports, including:
- Minister Timpson attended a meeting with Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) representatives from across the prison estate at HMP Berwyn. During the meeting, Minister Timpson delivered a speech highlighting the significant value he places on the work that IMBs do and took questions on some of the top concerns IMBs have nationally.
- IMB published a thematic report about the impact of the crumbling prison estate on prisoners, providing a graphic illustration of the human cost of a crumbling prison estate.
- Ofsted published its 2023/24 Annual Report, as well as several inspection reports, including Vinney Green Full inspection, Barton Moss Assurance Inspection, Clayfields House Full inspection, Marydale Lodge Assurance Inspection, Clare Lodge Monitoring Visit, Lansdowne Full inspection and Oakhill Full Inspection.
- Ofsted published two blogs:
- The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has published their Annual Report 2023-24 and presented their State of the Nation 2024 report to the Scottish Parliament on Human Rights Day, which included a finding that the prison system in Scotland is straining beyond capacity with significant risks for people’s safety, dignity and right to life.
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.
Training and external reports of interest
On 12 December, the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) will be launching a Global Report on Women in Prison: Analysis from National Preventive Mechanisms, which the UK NPM contributed to. The report will be available on the UK NPM website as well as in the APT Knowledge Hub.
We would also like to highlight ICVA’s bitesize training videos, brief training videos on a range of relevant topics, including human rights, immigration detainees in police custody, custody record reviewing and more.
Upcoming activities and events
12 Dec: NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup meeting, Online
12 Dec: Launch of APT Global Report on Women in Prison
13 Feb: NPM Scotland Subgroup meeting, Glasgow
17 Feb: Steering Group meeting, Online
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