NPM Bulletin – December 2025
Welcome
Welcome to the NPM’s final bulletin of 2025. It has been a busy year, and the past month has been no exception!
The NPM recently held its first ever all-NPM National Detention Monitoring and Inspection conference! We would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who attended and participated. The conference was very insightful, and it was great to hear from such a wide range of perspectives. For those interested, you can a recording of the conference here.
Jane has now stepped into her Interim Senior Secretariat Role, and will be supporting interim Head of the UK NPM Martin Kettle and the team over the next six months. Currently she is getting the finishing touches ready for the Northern Ireland Subgroup on 9 December, and working with MoJ colleagues on laying the Annual Report in Parliament. Chelsea continues to lead on many key workstreams, including the Scotland Subgroup, and the planning of a thematic session on key issues in places of deprivation of liberty in Scotland. Sarah, together with Sam, has drafted a chapter for an upcoming book on European NPMs, and is also working with Dr Sharon Shalev in scoping a literature review for the upcoming thematic report on solitary confinement.
This month, the central team also sadly said goodbye to Sam Gluckstein, but are delighted to welcome Martin Kettle as interim Head of the UK NPM.
I am fortunate to be stepping into the role of Interim Head of the UK National Preventive Mechanism for a few months until a substantive appointment is made. On Friday 28 November, I met the NPM on screen at the National Detention Monitoring and Inspection Conference, and was struck not only by the very different detention settings but also by the consistent commitment and passion that was evident on all sides as almost 300 members joined in the first national online conference.
I have worked in and around prisons for 27 years, much of that time as an inspector with HMIP. I have inspected prisons and immigration detention especially, working closely with Ofsted and CQC colleagues, but also on many occasions police and court custody facilities. Before that I had learned much from partnership with mental health secure services, while leading a prison-based personality disorder unit.
Sam Gluckstein and his predecessors have made great strides in supporting the NPM bodies, in ways that celebrate their variety and their distinct operational contexts, while also giving an imaginative lead towards developing further the cumulative and cooperative impacts of the monitoring work that goes on week by week around the four nations. Our NPM staff are first-rate: they will cover for my deficiencies and will see you safely through to the substantive appointment in due course.
The NPM Central Team would like to thank all of you for your continued support and engagement, and wishes you a very happy holiday season and a wonderful New Year.
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,
The UK NPM Central Team
The UK NPM’s Annual Report 2024-25
The UK NPM’s 16th Annual Report has been published!
The report paints a worrying picture of continuing and deepening concern, with the same systemic issues mentioned in years before persisting. Poor conditions have become normalised across many settings. Issues like overcrowding, prolonged isolation and detention, and violence continue to undermine the dignity, safety and wellbeing of people deprived of their liberty across the UK. However, the report also draws on the Reporting Dashboard to share good practice, highlighting practical examples that can be replicated across different settings.
National Subgroups
The NPM Scotland Subgroup met on 27 November, and were pleased to welcome Cat Dalrymple (Director of Justice) and Heather Young (Prisons Policy Manager) to the meeting for a constructive dialogue on several key issues, including overcrowding in Scottish prisons, deaths in custody, data and unimplemented recommendations. The Subgroup plans to hold a thematic session on these issues in the early spring.
The Northern Ireland Subgroup met on 9 December and discussed several key issues including information sharing on deaths and serious incidents in detention, prisoners over tariff and bail accommodation for children. As well as planning to engage with the Departments of Health and Justice on the state of accommodation, bail and remand for young people, the Subgroup also plans to hold an event on personality disorder in detention in May 2026.
Blog: Tackling Prison Overcrowding – Lessons from International NPMs
Chelsea has created this month’s blog with support from Microsoft Copilot Generative AI, in line with UK Government AI policy. The blog discusses overcrowding in European prisons, sharing key insights from a report from February’s European NPM Forum Workshop in Strasbourg. The blog also discusses the use of AI in scrutiny work.
Briefings Series: Use of Force in the Prison Estate
National Chair of the IMB, Elisabeth Davies, recently wrote to Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, to express serious concerns about disproportionate use of force in the prison estate. Additionally, the IMB has just published a report detailing use of force in immigration detention (more information on this below).
As the second instalment of the briefing’s series, the UK NPM Central Team has also published a paper on use of force in the prison estate, focusing on the introduction of tasers in the adult male estate and PAVA spray in youth custody. The briefing echoes shared concerns about the direction of use of force policy and its implications for vulnerable populations.
Using the Reporting Dashboard
Did you know that the Reporting Dashboard is designed for anyone to use?
The Reporting Dashboard is a great way to explore recommendations and track progress across settings. This month we’ve heard from several colleagues who are finding it useful:
- MWCS is using the Dashboard to review relevant recommendations in mental health and prison settings in Scotland.
- The Independent Office for Police Conduct has shared that it is actively using the Dashboard, looking at policing-related recommendations and even scoping their own version!
- The Justice Directorate within the Scottish Government is using the Dashboard to track recommendations and inform their ongoing work with regards to issues in detention settings in Scotland.
Please let us know how you are using the Dashboard by sending us an email.
Quarterly Analysis of the Reporting Dashboard
The first Quarterly Analysis of the data in the Reporting Dashboard has been published! This quarterly publication reviews and analyses the data uploaded to the Dashboard between July and September 2025, highlighting key concerning trends and good practice themes overall and across all settings.
Read the first Quarterly Analysis for Q2 of 2025 on our website.
Good Practice: Use of Force
The second good practice thematic gives an overview of examples of good practice in use of force. This thematic goes hand-in-hand with recent outputs from NPM bodies on this pressing issue, as well as the UK NPM’s briefing mentioned above, and aims to share practical examples of good practice that could be adopted in other establishments or settings.
Spotlight reports from NPM bodies
Independent Monitoring Boards – By force of habit: How the use of force in immigration detention has lost sight of necessity and dignity
This harrowing report highlights widespread and unjustified use of force in immigration detention: routine handcuffing, especially during hospital transfers, are becoming the norm; inconsistent practices exist across facilities; poor risk assessments are common; and there is a lack of trauma-informed approaches.
Read here: By force of habit
Scottish Human Rights Commission – A “brutal” system: Families’ experiences following a death in custody in Scotland
SHRC’s new report exposes how families of people who died in custody in Scotland face a confusing, slow, and traumatic Fatal Accident Inquiry process, calling for urgent reforms to ensure humane communication, legal support, and accountability.
Read here: A “brutal” system
Latest news from NPM bodies
- CCE has published two new reports regarding the criminalisation of Children in care and children on custodial remand.
- CJI Chief Inspector Jacqui Durkin attended A Celebration of Restorative Justice & Practice, hosted by Northern Ireland Alternatives (NIA) and Community Restorative Justice Ireland (CRJI)
- CJI Inspectors have been visiting Approved Premises across Northern Ireland (hostels for individuals released from prison who require close supervision as part of licence conditions or public protection requirements) as part of fieldwork for a Follow-Up Review of the recommendations from the 2023 Review of Probation Approved Premises report. Inspectors have spoken to residents living in the hostels about their experiences of preparation for release into the community from prison.
- CJI’s Jacqui Durkin attended the launch of the 2024 Progress in the Penal System Report by the Irish Penal Reform Trust, speaking on a panel alongside thew new Senior Expert Advisor to the Office of the Inspector of Prisons, Sam Gluckstein!
- CQC has published research on Good practice in relation to access, experience and outcomes for Black men in mental health services. Black men in England often do not get the mental health care they need, and this research aims to improve this issue and, importantly, ask what good mental health care looks like for Black men.
- CQC has also published an inspection report of Broadmoor Hospital, which has received a “good” rating.
- HIW has published its Mental Health, Learning Disability Services and Mental Health Act Monitoring Report 2024-2025. This report outlines the themes of HIW’s work for mental health and learning disability services across Wales.
- HMICS has published a large inspection report for the Highlands and Islands, undertaken jointly with Healthcare Improvement Scotland.
- HMIP has published several inspection reports.
- HMIPS has published an inspection report for HMP Glenochil, using its new “Desired Outcomes” framework, and has published an analytical report based on Remand Prisoners’ Experiences in the Scottish Prison System.
- IMB has published several annual monitoring reports.
- IMB has also published a harrowing report detailing use of force in immigration detention which reveals a troubling pattern of force being applied inconsistently, disproportionately, and without adequate justification, often undermining the dignity and welfare of highly vulnerable individuals.
- MWCS published inspection reports for HMP Greenock, the Orchard Clinic and the Melville Unit, the latter finding inconsistent documentation, delays in access to psychological therapies, variable experiences of safety and a need for strengthened leadership.
- Ofsted has published inspection reports on Adel Beck Secure Children’s Home, the Atkinson Unit and the Lincolnshire Secure Unit.
- SHRC has published a new report that has been submitted by the SHRC to Scotland’s Fatal Accident Inquiry Review, which was announced by the Scottish Government in January 2025, following the SHRC criticising the lack of action on reducing deaths in state custody in Scotland, and in particular, lack of progress to review the FAI system around deaths in places of detention.
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
9 December 2025: NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup Q3 meeting
26 January 2026: NPM Steering Group Q3 meeting
29 – 30 April 2026: UK NPM Annual Conference 2026, Manchester
External resources of interest
The UK NPM central team recently met with colleagues from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The IOPC publishes “Learning the Lessons” magazines, which aim to improve police policy and practice. Each issue focuses on a particular theme and brings together a series of case studies, including reflective questions for those working in policing. Most recently, the IOPC published an issue on frontline policing, though the most recent custody issue was published in August 2023. Read all issues here.
The project “LGBTIQ Detainees – Strengthening the rights of LGBTIQ detainees in the EU”, run by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, has now officially closed, with a regional report and four national reports published. The regional report provides an overview of the key applicable international and regional standards for LGBTIQ detainees in the EU, while the national reports provide an overview of the rights of LGBTQI+ detainees within the Austrian, Greek, Hungarian and Italian criminal justice systems.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has published the final report into abuse at the Medomsley Detention Centre, a senior youth detention centre in Durham which held those between the ages of 17 and 21 from 1961 to 1987.
The Prison Reform Trust has published two reports revealing the profound impact of long-term imprisonment on families and loved ones in England and Wales and Scotland. The Long Stretch 2 examines this issue in England and Wales, while The Lang Whang focuses on Scotland.
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