The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986

Procedure of tribunal N.I.

83.—(1) The Lord Chancellor may [F1 , after consultation with the Lord Chief Justice,] make rules with respect to the making of applications to the Review Tribunal and with respect to the proceedings of the tribunal and matters incidental to or consequential on such proceedings.

[F2 (1A) The Lord Chief Justice may nominate any of the following to exercise his functions under paragraph (1)—

(a) the holder of one of the offices listed in Schedule 1 to the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002;

(b) a Lord Justice of Appeal (as defined in section 88 of that Act).]

(2) Rules made under this Article may in particular make provision—

(a) for enabling the tribunal, or the chairman of the tribunal, to postpone the consideration of any application by or in respect of a patient, or of any such application of any specified class, until the expiration of such period (not exceeding 12 months) as may be specified in the rules from the date on which an application by or in respect of the same patient was last considered and determined by the tribunal under this Order;

(b) for restricting the persons qualified to serve as members of the tribunal for the consideration of any application, or of an application of any specified class;

(c) for enabling the tribunal to dispose of an application without a formal hearing where such a hearing is not requested by the applicant, where the proceedings are of a specified class or where it appears to the tribunal that such a hearing would be detrimental to the health of the patient;

(d) for enabling the tribunal to exclude members of the public, or any specified class of members of the public, from any proceedings of the tribunal, or to prohibit the publication of reports of any such proceedings or the names of any persons concerned in such proceedings;

(e) for regulating the circumstances in which, and the persons by whom, applicants and patients in respect of whom applications are made to the tribunal may, if not desiring to conduct their own case, be represented for the purposes of those applications;

(f) for regulating the methods by which information relevant to an application may be obtained by or furnished to the tribunal, and in particular for authorising the members of the tribunal, or any one or more of them, to visit and interview in private any patient by or in respect of whom an application has been made;

(g) for making available to any applicant, and to any patient in respect of whom an application is made to the tribunal, copies of any documents obtained by or furnished to the tribunal in connection with the application, and a statement of the substance of any oral information so obtained or furnished except where the tribunal considers it undesirable in the interests of the patient or for other special reasons;

(h) for requiring the tribunal, if so requested in accordance with the rules, to furnish such statements of the reasons for any decision given by the tribunal as may be prescribed by the rules, subject to any provision made by the rules for withholding such a statement from a patient or any other person in cases where the tribunal considers that furnishing it would be undesirable in the interests of the patient or for other special reasons;

(i) for conferring on the tribunal such ancillary powers as the Lord Chancellor thinks necessary for the purposes of the exercise of its functions under this Order.

(3) Paragraphs (1) and (2) apply in relation to references to the Review Tribunal as they apply in relation to applications to the tribunal by or in respect of patients.

(4) Rules under this Article may make provision as to the procedure to be adopted in cases concerning restricted patients and, in particular, for restricting the persons qualified to serve as president of the tribunal for the consideration of an application or reference relating to a restricted patient.

(5) Any functions conferred on the chairman of the Review Tribunal by this Order or by rules under this Article may, if for any reason he is unable to act, be exercised by the deputy chairman.

(6) The Review Tribunal may pay allowances in respect of travelling expenses, subsistence and loss of earnings to any person attending the tribunal as an applicant or witness, to the patient who is the subject of the proceedings if he attends otherwise than as the applicant or a witness and to any person (other than counsel or a solicitor) who attends as the representative of an applicant.

(7) The Review Tribunal may, and if so required by the Court of Appeal shall, state in the form of a special case for determination by the Court of Appeal any question of law which may arise before it and the decision of the Court of Appeal shall be final.

(8) [F3 Part I of the Arbitration Act 1996] shall not apply to any proceedings before the Review Tribunal except so far as any provisions of that Act may be applied, with or without modifications, by rules made under this Article.

F1 Words in art. 83(1) inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), ss. 15(2), 148(1), Sch. 5 para. 74(2); S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 paras. 10, 12(a)

F2 Art. 83(1A) inserted (3.4.2006) by Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), ss. 15(2), 148(1), Sch. 5 para. 74(3); S.I. 2006/1014, art. 2(a), Sch. 1 paras. 10, 12(a)

F3 1996 c. 23