Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 4 June (HL15680), what is their response to the recommendations on the National Preventive Mechanism, made in the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee against Torture following its most recent periodic review of the UK.

The Government continues to comply with its obligations under the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, under which we established the independent National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) in 2009.

We note the recommendations made by the UN Committee Against Torture in relation to the NPM. We expect to provide a response on those issues as part of the next periodic report to the Committee Against Torture in May 2023.

We will explore with the NPM how the issues raised by the Committee may be addressed. The department facilitates the laying in Parliament of the annual report of the NPM and acknowledges the helpful recommendations that it contains. The latest Written Ministerial Statement to this effect was laid before Parliament on 29 January 2019 (HLWS1249).