Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment may, in some circumstances, be published without the prior consent of the state in question.

​The UK encourages Council of Europe members to engage fully with the recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). The UK Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe has intervened in the Committee of Ministers in the past, calling on Member States to agree to the publication of all CPT reports concerning that State. The UK Government promotes a general policy of transparency by authorising the publication of the visit reports and the UK responses thereon, encouraging other Member States to do likewise. We shall continue to take this approach.