Prospective
[63C Guardianship orders.U.K.
(1)In this Act “guardianship order” means an order placing the accused under the guardianship of—
(a)in a case where the order is treated as if it had been made by a civil court in England and Wales, a local social services authority or such other person approved by a local social services authority as may be specified in the order;
(b)in a case where the order is treated as if it had been made by a civil court in Scotland, a local authority or such other person approved by a local authority as may be specified in the order;
(c)in a case where the order is treated as if it had been made by a civil court in Northern Ireland, a Board or an authorised HSS trust or such other person approved by a Board or an authorised HSS trust as may be specified in the order.
(2)In subsection (1) above—
“authorised HSS trust” and “Board” have the same meanings as in the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986;
“local authority” has the same meaning as in the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984; and
“local social services authority” has the same meaning as in the Mental Health Act 1983.
(3)A court-martial shall not make a guardianship order unless—
(a)the court is satisfied, on the written or oral evidence of two registered medical practitioners, that—
(i)the accused is suffering from mental illness, psychopathic disorder, severe mental impairment or mental impairment; and
(ii)the mental disorder is of a nature or degree which warrants his reception into guardianship; and
(b)the court is of the opinion, having regard to all the circumstances including the nature of the offence and the character and antecedents of the accused and the other available methods of dealing with him, that the most suitable method of disposing of the case is by means of a guardianship order.
(4)A court-martial shall not make a guardianship order unless it is also satisfied that the authority or other person intended to be specified in the order is willing to receive the accused into guardianship.
(5)A guardianship order shall specify the form or forms of mental disorder referred to in subsection (3)(a) above from which, upon the evidence taken into account under that subsection, the accused is found by the court to be suffering; and a guardianship order shall not be made unless the accused is described by each of the practitioners whose evidence is taken into account under that subsection as suffering from the same one of those forms of mental disorder, whether or not he is also described by either of them as suffering from another of those forms of mental disorder.
(6)The appropriate mental health legislation shall apply, with such modifications as may be prescribed, in relation to guardianship orders under this section as it applies to guardianship orders under the legislation concerned.
(7)In this section “mental disorder”, “mental impairment”, “psychopathic disorder” and “severe mental impairment” have the same meanings as in the Mental Health Act 1983.]
Textual Amendments
Marginal Citations
Textual Amendments applied to the whole legislation