Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984

42 Rectification of application and recommendations: guardianship

(1) If within the period of 14 days beginning with the day on which a patient has been received into guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application, the application, or any medical recommendation given for the purposes of the application, is found to be in any respect incorrect or defective, the application or recommendation may, not later than 7 days after the expiration of the said period, with the approval of the sheriff, be amended by the person by whom it was signed; and upon such amendment being made the application or recommendation shall have effect, and shall be deemed to have had effect, as if it had been originally made as so amended.

(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, if within the period first mentioned therein it appears to the designated medical officer that one of the medical recommendations on which the guardianship application is founded is insufficient to warrant reception into guardianship in pursuance of the application, he may give notice in writing to that effect within that period to the applicant and to the sheriff; and where any such notice is given in respect of a recommendation that recommendation shall be disregarded, but the application shall be, and shall be deemed always to have been, sufficient if—

(a) a fresh recommendation complying with the relevant provisions of this Part of this Act (other than the provisions relating to the time of signature and the interval between medical examinations) is furnished to the local authority concerned and to the sheriff ; and

(b) the sheriff is satisfied that that recommendation and the other recommendations on which the application is founded together comply with those provisions.

(3) Where the medical recommendations upon which an application under this Part of this Act is founded are, taken together, insufficient to warrant reception into guardianship in pursuance of the application, a notice under subsection (2) of this section may be given in respect of either of those recommendations ; but this subsection shall not apply in a case where the application is of no effect by virtue of section 37(4) of this Act.