As part of its mission to build stronger and safer communities, the 2020 Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to reviewing the existing functions, powers, appointment procedures, and reporting processes for Prison Visiting Committees (PVCs). An initial desk-based review of PVCs in 2021 led to the recommendation to retain and reform the Committees and to bring them more in line with contemporary standards for such bodies. A public consultation took place in 2022, involving an online questionnaire, engaging with the National Prison Visiting Committees Chairpersons Group, and direct prisoner engagement.

Informed by this consultation, a number of specific recommendations have been developed for this report. It is intended that the statutory recommendations be divided between primary legislation and a statutory instrument as appropriate, the former replacing the draft Head 13 of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill 2022. The non-statutory recommendations will be achieved through means appropriate to the nature of the specifics of respective recommendations. The review of PVCs was led by a number of guiding principles, identified during the consultation process:

• Clarifying the exact powers of PVCs, and specifically their routes to advocating for prisoners and addressing issues of concern, to the benefit of prisoners and PVC members.
• There is a need to bring more uniformity and consistency to the functioning of PVCs across all prisons.
• A balance needs to be struck between the benefits of unannounced visits and the benefit to prisoners of regularity.
• For prisoners to have faith in PVCs, they must at all times be able to speak with PVC members in private and must learn of the outcome of issues of concern raised.
• PVCs must retain their independence. They are to be complementary to other oversight mechanisms, namely that of the Office of the Inspector of Prisons, but they remain representatives of civil society and independent appointees of the Minister for Justice.
• While PVC members are individual appointees, they are appointed to be a member of a committee and they must work closely and respectfully as a team with fellow members at all times in service to ensure the smooth running of the PVC.
• There is a need to increase the diversity of PVC membership to more accurately reflect the society in which prisons operate and the prison population.
• To increase trust and faith of prisoners in PVCs and consequently to enable the latter to be more effective, the appointments process must be robust and transparent at all times.