The UK National Preventive Mechanism is made up of 21 organisations, which independently monitor different settings of detention across the UK, and a central team, which supports and leads NPM bodies in delivering their responsibilities under the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). The NPM undertakes collective work to prevent ill treatment of detained people in the UK, promotes awareness and understanding of OPCAT principles, and works with international mechanisms and organisations with a mandate to prevent ill treatment of detained people.
The NPM published its 2024-25 Annual Report on 11 December 2025, highlighting risks of inhuman and degrading treatment of people in UK detention settings. This includes children and adults deprived of liberty under mental health and mental capacity laws, as well as individuals detained in immigration detention, prisons, and police and court custody.
The report warns that systemic failures continue to undermine efforts of many dedicated staff to uphold people’s dignity, raising concerns about potential breaches to the international prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The report identifies a wide range of issues, including:
- Institutionalisation and closed cultures in care settings
People with a learning disability, and autistic people, continue to be detained in hospitals, even when their deprivation of liberty offers no therapeutic benefit. Long stays in institutional settings can erode connections with family and friends, and restrict basic freedoms to make everyday choices and decisions about treatment. Closed cultures (cultures where it is unlikely that many outsiders go in, CQC 2022) in health and social care risk normalising poor practice and perpetuating harm. - Overcrowding in physically deteriorating prisons
The ongoing capacity crisis has led to prisoners being held in cramped, dilapidated facilities, with insufficient living space and little privacy. At one prison in Scotland, prisoners could not access daily showers, while at another some temporarily had to sleep on mattresses on the floor. Despite staff efforts to support an increasingly complex population, the mental health crisis in prisons is acute and worsening. - Increasingly crowded immigration detention
The number of people detained for immigration purposes has risen, and the UK still has no statutory time limit on detention. Pre-deportation detention should only be used in exceptional cases and for the shortest possible time, yet some individuals remain detained for over a year. Indefinite detention has severe consequences for health and wellbeing, contributing to depression, self-harm and increased violence in an already very challenging environment.
