Welcome

Welcome to the second UK NPM bulletin – a monthly internal update on the activities happening across the NPM. We invite you to cascade this to your staff and volunteers so that they can remain up to date on NPM news, access our resources and participate in our events. If you would like to be added to the subscription list, please email us your request.

This month has felt busy and condensed – with many of us on Annual Leave. I have been in France for the last few weeks, and Chelsea has had some time off too. I hope you have all had enjoyable summers thus far, although from my office in Edinburgh I am looking out to grey and rainy skies – it doesn’t feel particularly summery!

I am looking forward to the month ahead where we have some important projects to get over the line for Steering Group sign off at the start of September. And of course, this month we bid farewell to our Chair, Wendy. There will be an opportunity to thank her for her immense contribution closer to the time – but I would also like to record my thanks here. Wendy has been a significant professional and personal support to me in this role, and a stalwart advocate for the rights of people deprived of their liberty. I wish her all the best as she moves on from her post.

Sam Gluckstein, Head of UK NPM

NPM Chair Wendy Sinclair-Gieben announces resignation

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland and Chair of the UK NPM Wendy Sinclair-Gieben will be stepping down from her post on 31 August. Wendy was elected Chair by the NPM membership in 2022, and has been Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland since 2018. Read more on our website.

Sherry Ralph appointed as NPM Chair

In July the NPM Steering Group ratified the appointment of Sherry Ralph as Chair of the NPM. Sherry is currently CEO of ICVA and has been a longstanding member of the Steering Group. Her background is in criminal justice working in prisons, with police custody and human rights. The NPM team is very much looking forward to working closely with Sherry. Sherry will take the Chair formally at the end of August once Wendy has demitted.

Training resources now available

The UK NPM has launched a training resources page, offering staff and volunteers from UK NPM constituent bodies up-to-date resources to support their fulfilment of the OPCAT mandate, including:

• Video: Introduction to OPCAT and the UK NPM
• Download: Human rights standards
• Guidance: Two new documents, one for leaders and managers, and one for inspectors and monitors, offering guidance on the prevention of ill treatment in detention (see the blog below for more details!)

New vacancy in the NPM team

An EO vacancy to support the NPM central team in delivering the NPM’s objectives will be going live in August. Please share this with your networks once public.

Blog: preventing ill treatment in detention

In our latest blog, Sarah Cooke OBE and Professor Rachel Murray share their insights on the NPM’s new guidance for the prevention of ill treatment in places where people are deprived of their liberty. These new guidance documents offer practical suggestions and key skills to support leaders, managers, inspectors and monitors in their work to fulfil the OPCAT mandate of preventing torture and ill treatment.

In the blog you will also find links to the guidance and the recording of the webinar launch of this work, featuring several distinguished speakers offering their insights on the importance of inspection and monitoring.

NPM Task and Finish Groups

We are pleased to share updates on The UK NPM’s four Task and Finish Groups, which were created at the UK NPM 2023 Annual Conference to address issues of concern in places where people are deprived of their liberty.

• Menopause in detention: The group has developed guidance and an informational video for monitors, which will be published as a toolkit for World Menopause Day on 18 October 2024.
• Definition of detention: A draft definition of detention, and interpretive statement, will be reviewed by the steering group later this year. This statement will consider the recent SPT general comment, which highlights the importance of ensuring the autonomy and functional independence of NPMs, to enable a fully independent decision as to whether a particular place constitutes or may constitute a place of deprivation of liberty.
• Mental health transfer data: A proposed recommendation from the NPM with regards to mental health transfer data has been drafted, and will be reviewed by the steering group later in the year. The group will review the possible impact of legislation to amend the Mental Health Act, which was mentioned in the King’s Speech on 17 July.
• Deaths in detention: Following a roundtable on deaths in detention in September 2023, the Scotland Subgroup has taken up deaths in detention as a key issue, and Northern Ireland Subgroup is conducting a review of data received from places monitored relating to deaths in custody or serious adverse incidents.

We will share Task and Finish Group updates as they arise in future bulletins. If you have questions on any of the groups or their activities, please reply to this email.

Latest news from NPM bodies

• The Scottish Human Rights Commission and the NPM published a comprehensive report “Review, Recommend, Repeat; an assessment of where human rights have stalled in detention” on 25 July 2024. The report identifies 10 areas of concern including mental health, segregation, and deaths in custody. An executive summary provides a visual outline of progress on recommendations over ten years. The report was covered extensively by BBC Scotland, with interviews with Cathy Asante of SHRC (at 1:06) and Sam Gluckstein.
• ICVA has published an update report on their work regarding the use of anti-rip clothing in police custody. The update report contains updated information from stakeholders, ICVA members and an overview of responses to ICVA’s recommendations to the Home Office, National Police Chief’s Council, and College of Policing. The report and press release give further detail on increased scrutiny in this important area.
• Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland have published their Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24.
• The Care Quality Commission has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2022-23.
• Care Inspectorate has released a new podcast series on reducing inappropriate use of psychoactive medicines in care homes, with episodes available on their website.
• HMICFRS published a report on an inspection visit to police custody suites in Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.
• Alongside inspection reports published in July, HMI Prisons has published a comment from Chief Inspector Charlie Taylor on emergency measures to release prisoners early, and a blog, “Prisons within prisons: what can we learn from how we manage our most dangerous offenders?”.
• Independent Monitoring Boards published annual reports from HMP/YOI Moorland, Kent Coast STHF, HMIP Garth, HMIP Lindholme, Charter Flights, HMP Leicester,  HMP Morton Hall, HMP Full Sutton, Derwentside IRC, HMP Lowdham Grange, HMP High Down, HMP Lewes, and HMP Lancaster Farms. On 5 July annual reports from 11 Boards were published.

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.

International news and activities

Chief Inspector at CJI Jacqui Durkin and Louise Falshaw CEO of IMB and Lay Observers, represented the NPM at OSEC/ODHIR* training in Warsaw on detention monitoring and the protection of human rights while preventing and countering violent extremism and radicalization to terrorism (VERLT) in prisons. Training will be cascaded through the NPM in the next few months. 

*Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

Upcoming events and activities

22 August 2024           NPM Scotland Subgroup meeting, Edinburgh

09 September 2024     Human Rights Consortium Conference – Sam chairing

10 September 2024     NPM Steering Group meeting, Online

10 September 2024 Launch of HM Chief Inspector of Prison Annual Report
Register here

16 September 2024     NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup meeting, Online

17 September 2024     NPM Northern Ireland Subgroup meeting with Department
of Health and Department of Justice

Thank you for reading!

This bulletin is compiled each month by the NPM Central Team, which includes: Sam Gluckstein, Head of the UK NPM, Jane Kilpatrick, Secretariat Officer, Chelsea Keenan, Secretariat Officer (Scotland), Claire Pizzurro, Summer Law Intern, and Serife Suleyman, Secretariat Assistant. If you have any news you would like to share, please let us know!

The UK NPM Central Team