Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982

11 Leave of absence and patients absent without leave

(1) Sections 39 and 40 of the principal Act (1eave of absence and patients absent without leave) shall be amended as follows.

(2) At the end of subsection (3) of section 39 (persons who may have custody of patient during leave of absence) there shall be inserted the words " or, if the patient is required in accordance with conditions imposed on the grant of leave of absence to reside in another hospital, of any officer on the staff of that other hospital. "

(3) After subsection (1) of section 40 (persons who may take into custody and return a patient absent without leave) there shall be inserted—

“(1A) Where the place referred to in paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section is a hospital other than the one in which the patient is for the time being liable to be detained, the references in that subsection to an officer on the staff of the hospital and the managers of the hospital shall respectively include references to an officer on the staff of the first-mentioned hospital and the managers of that hospital.”

(4) In subsection (3) of section 40 (period within which patient may be taken into custody) for the words from " after the expiration of the following period " to " twenty-eight days " there shall be substituted the words " after the expiration of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the first day of his absence without leave ".

(5) After subsection (3) of section 40 there shall be inserted—

“(3A) A patient shall not be taken into custody under this section if the period for which he is liable to be detained is that specified in section 25(4), 29(3) or 30(2) or (4) of this Act and that period has expired.”