Coronavirus Act 2020

[F1 10 (1) A court may make an order, determination or direction under a provision listed in sub-paragraph (2) if the court— N.I.

(a) is satisfied that complying with the requirement applying to that provision for the oral evidence of an RQIA practitioner and the written or oral evidence of one other medical practitioner is impractical or would involve undesirable delay, and

(b) is satisfied on the evidence of a single RQIA practitioner of the matters of which it would (but for this paragraph) have to be satisfied on the evidence of two practitioners as referred to in sub-paragraph (a),

and any other conditions for the making of the order, determination or direction are met.

(2) The provisions referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are—

(a) Article 43(1) (order remanding accused person to hospital for treatment);

(b) Article 44(1)(a) or (b) (hospital order, or guardianship, in respect of convicted person);

(c) Article 45(1) (interim hospital order in respect of convicted person pending final hospital order or other disposal);

(d) Article 49 (determination of question of fitness of person to be tried on indictment);

(e) Article 50(1) (direction for recording of finding that person is not guilty of offence charged on indictment on ground of insanity).

(3) Article 44(7) has effect as if—

(a) for “described by each of the practitioners” there were substituted “ described by the practitioner ”;

(b) for “whether or not he is also described by either of them” there were substituted “ whether or not he is also described by the practitioner ”.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Sch. 10 Pt. 2 suspended (10.5.2021) by The Coronavirus Act 2020 (Suspension) Order (Northern Ireland) 2021 (S.R. 2021/98), arts. 1(1), 2 (with art. 3, Sch.)

Commencement Information

I1 Sch. 10 para. 10 in force at 2.4.2020 by S.R. 2020/58, art. 2(c)