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Have you an item or news of an upcoming event you consider newsworthy?
Click here to submit it.

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December 2007

Annual Report 2006-2007
ICVA’s Annual Report has now been published and is available to download here

New Exec on Board
ICVA’s new executive committee was appointed at the December annual general meeting. An especially warm welcome goes to new members, Robin Cherney, Keith Davies and Christine McGawley. John Littlechild was re-elected as chair and Kathie Emery & David Wood, vice-chairs for the next year.

ICVA Executive Committee 2007-2008

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November 2007

Annual Conference 2007
ICVA’s 2007 annual conference took place at Alton Towers Conference Centre on Saturday 17 November, kindly hosted by Staffordshire Police Authority and chaired by Mrs Christina Jebb.

An action packed agenda included the following presentations, led by a keynote speech from Neil Curtis of the Home Office.

Those presentations marked in bold (see below) link to the original content for your information.

Raising Standards and Performance in Custody
Neil Curtis - Police Powers and Protection Unit, Home Office

Protocol for ICV Visiting of Prevention of TACT Prisoners
Assistant Chief Constable Robert Taylor - Greater Manchester Police

Putting it on the Agenda
Mr Everett Henry - HM Inspectorate of Constabulary

Border & Immigration Agency – Managing Detention
Mrs Fiona Cooper - Detention Services, Home Office

Mobile Custody Facilities
Mr Joe Malloy - Staffordshire Police

The Role of Custody Nurses
Mr Ken London - Police Authority Member, Kent Police Authority

Scottish Conference
This year’s event took place at the Scottish Police College in Tulliallan and was kindly hosted by the Scottish Police Authorities and chaired by John Littlechild, following a welcome by Deputy Chief Constable John McNabb of Grampian Police. 

Brian Plastow - Chief Inspector, Lothian and Borders Police and Kim Crawford - Service/Clinical Nurse Manager, NHS Lothian Forensic (Legal) Medical Service delivered the keynote speech.  They highlighted the crucial role of NHS Lothian Clinical Forensic Nurses (CFNs) and the drive to extend this to improve standards of medical care to detainees and concentrate specialist medical skills of FMEs on forensic issues.

Other topics under discussion included national custody developments in Scotland and diabetes management at the forces’ main custody suite, St Leonards. 

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August 2006

Lincolnshire ICVs Talk Back

Click here to access the views of Lincolnshire ICVs on the pros and cons of independent custody visiting in their area.

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July 2006

IMMIGRATION DETENTION: A BETTER WAY FORWARD IN SOUTHWARK
by Dinah Gallop

An interesting experiment in Southwark has proved it is possible to provide cost effective and acceptable conditions for detainees held in police custody awaiting deportation or transfer to a detention centre. A joint report on the experiment from Southwark ICV Chair Avril Jones and Southwark custody managers recently went to the MPA.

Work by the Camden ICV Panel in 2004 highlighted the unacceptable length of time many immigration detainees were held in police cells (designed for short stays) after deportation papers had been served. This led to two meetings between the Home Office and the MPA and a promise of action to reduce time in police cells.

Southwark custody visitors, and indeed Southwark police, shared our concerns and their subsequent research into immigration detainees threw up a similar pattern to the one we found in Camden; an average time of over 40 hours in police custody and some detainees held over 100 hours. (The maximum permitted is 5 nights which can mean 7 days.)

The Southwark project set out to prove it was possible to improve the treatment and supervision of immigration detainees by removing such detainees into a specialist facility, thus freeing up cells and reducing pressure in other custody suites.

A formerly disused custody suite at Southwark Station has been designated an immigration custody suite. Immigration detainees arrested for whatever reason are initially taken to one of the main custody suites in Southwark or surrounding boroughs and processed in the normal way. However once detainees have been served deportation papers by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), they are removed to the Southwark suite as soon as possible. This releases cell space in other stations.

The Southwark suite contains only those awaiting deportation or removal to a deportation centre, and there is no competing pressure from the need to process other detainees within PACE time limits. Hence the suite can be organised around the needs of those likely to spend a few days in police custody awaiting removal.

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Regrets

We regret to pass on the sad news that Mr Peter Fisher passed away on 4th July 2006.

Peter was Chairman of the Scarborough Southern Areas Community and Police Liaison Group, Honorary Vice President of the Independent Custody Visiting Association and co-ordinator for the Scarborough Panel of NYPA Independent Custody Visiting Scheme.

On behalf of the executive committee, staff and members of ICVA, we would like to express our  sincere sympathy to his wife and family at this time.

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June 2006

The Justice Awards
Scheme administrators and independent custody visitors are invited to submit nominations for the Justice Awards 2006, designed to recognise the outstanding contributions among all those working or volunteering in the criminal justice system.
Nominations are now invited for individual awards, team awards and the Lord Justice Kay Award. The closing date is 31 July 2006 and finalists and winners will be invited to an award ceremony in London in November.
The Justice Awards were established by Baroness Scotland, Minister of State for the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and Law Reform, in 2004 as your chance to make sure that outstanding performers get the credit they deserve.
Any team or individual working or volunteering in the Criminal Justice System can be nominated, including:

• Police
• National Offender Management Service (including prisons and probation)
• Her Majesty’s Courts Service (including Magistrates’ and Crown Court)
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Youth Justice System
• Criminal Defence Service (including the Public Defender Service)

Nominations are also welcomed from any voluntary organisation that works with victims, witnesses, defendants or offenders – which of course includes anyone involved with independent custody visiting.

Click here to make a submission - best of luck to any nominees!

NB Submissions for this year’s awards are now closed.

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You can help set the PACE

What are your views on the PACE Codes of Practice? You now have the opportunity to make a genuine impact on them by taking part in an online questionnaire, as part of a review of the PACE Codes of Practice. By doing so you will be able to influence the future development of the PACE Codes. Click here before 7th July to make your views known.

The closing date for submissions to this consultation process has now passed.

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May 2006

Code of Practice For The Detention of Terrorist Suspects

You may be aware that during the passage of the recent Terrorism Act 2006, the Home Secretary made a commitment to produce a Code of Practice to govern the detention of individuals arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. This was connected with the provision to extend the maximum length of pre-charge detention in such circumstances, from 14, to 28 days.

A draft of the Code of Practice has now been published for consultation.

Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT) Code Consultation Document

Code of Practice for the detention, treatment and questioning of persons under section 41 and Schedule 8 of the Terrorism Act 2000

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April 2006

Speaking Your Language

The Notice of Rights and Entitlements is now available in 44 different languages.

Produced by the Home Office, the Law Society and Criminal Defence Service, this invaluable information is available in both print and audio format.

Click here to download.

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Spring Updates

The Spring 2006 edition of Visiting Times is now available. This issue includes features on the revised Codes of Practice, the Single Inspectorate, and nationwide conference reviews from Scotland, Belfast, Wales and Staffordshire. Download your copy here.

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Access Annual Conference

Click here for more details

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March 2006

An A-Z of ICVA

Our chief executive, Ian Smith OBE delivered the following speech at a recent Capita conference, providing an overview of ICVA, its origins and vision. While some of it will be familiar, it seems there is always something new to learn about our organisation…

click here to download full text

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February 2006

A Message from Malcolm

We’d like to share this greeting from Malcolm Ford, recently retired scheme administrator for Kent, as it extends to all of you…

Dear Ian
Thank you for your kind comments with regard to my imminent retirement.

The last ten years of my 37 year ‘local government’ career have been particularly interesting.

Working with volunteer custody visitors has been among the most rewarding of my police authority activities. Thanks to the well intentioned efforts of ICVA it has also been challenging!

It must be something about the nature of custody visiting as it doesn’t seem to matter if one is talking about volunteers or officers (including police officers), everyone has been helpful and above all, pleasant. I certainly view you, Ian and of course, Anna, in that light. I will miss the connection, not least due to the pleasure I have derived from all the personal contact, which has extended beyond Kent borders to ICVA and to colleagues in other police authorities.

Thanks once again for your sentiments. I wish you, ICVA and of course custody visiting in general well for the future.

Yours sincerely
Malcolm Ford
Secretariat Manager

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January 2006

New 2005 PACE codes have just been published by the Home Office and can be viewed here

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News Archive

Please click here to view older news stories

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