Monitoring of Places of Detention (Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture) Act 2018

This section applies if the subcommittee requests access to a place of detention.

A responsible entity for the place of detention must ensure that the subcommittee and any accompanying expert are given all relevant information that is requested by the subcommittee for evaluating the needs and measures that should be adopted to strengthen, if necessary, the protection of people deprived of their liberty against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

A detaining authority for the place of detention must, at the request of the subcommittee and under the Ministerial arrangements, allow the subcommittee to have unrestricted access to the following information in relation to the place:

the number of detainees in the place;

the treatment of detainees in the place;

the conditions of detention applying to detainees in the place.

Access to which the subcommittee is entitled under this section includes the right to inspect any record that is under the control of a responsible entity for the place of detention, or whose production the responsible entity may, in an official capacity, reasonably require.

A provision of any Act or other law that restricts or denies access to records does not prevent a responsible entity from complying with this section.

In this section:

record means any document or other source of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or on film, or by electronic process, or in any other manner or by any other means.