Mental Health Act 1959

In relation to persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder, section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to functions of local health authorities with respect to the prevention of illness and the care and after-care of patients) shall have effect subject to the following provisions of this section.

Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of the said section twenty-eight, the reference in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of this section to the care of persons for the time being resident in accommodation provided by a local health authority includes, in the case of persons so resident who are under the age of sixteen years, the payment to those persons of such amounts as the local health authority think fit in respect of their occasional personal expenses where it appears to that authority that no such payment would otherwise be made.

The Minister may make regulations as to the conduct of any premises in which residential accommodation or facilities for training or occupation are provided by local health authorities under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, for persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

Regulations made under this section may in particular confer upon officers of the Minister authorised thereunder such powers of inspection as may be prescribed by the regulations.

For the purposes of subsection (8) of section twenty-one of the National Assistance Act, 1948 (which restricts the duties of local authorities in respect of the provision of accommodation under that section by reference to the provision authorised or required to be made under other enactments) no account shall be taken of the provision authorised or required to be made by local health authorities under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, with respect to residential accommodation for persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

The persons referred to in subsection (1) of section twenty-nine of the said Act of 1948 (which section enables local authorities to make arrangements for promoting the welfare of blind persons and other disabled persons described in the said subsection (1)) shall include mentally disordered persons of any description ; and for the purposes of subsection (6) of that section (which, among other things, excludes from that section the provision of accommodation or services required to be provided under the National Health Service Act, 1946), no account shall be taken of the provisions of Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1946, with respect to the provision of accommodation or services for such persons.

Subsection (2) of this section shall not affect the operation of the provisions of Part IV of the National Assistance Act, 1948, relating to disabled persons' homes or charities for disabled persons, but without prejudice to the provisions of Part III of this Act with respect to the registration of such homes.

Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring a local authority to make provision for the same purposes both under Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1946, and under Part III of the National Assistance Act, 1948.

Any local authority for the purposes of the Children Act, 1948 (in this section referred to as a children authority) may accommodate in homes or other accommodation provided by that authority under section fifteen of that Act any child who, not being in their care within the meaning of Part II of that Act, is a person whose care or after-care is for the time being undertaken by that or any other authority as local health authority in pursuance of arrangements made under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, for the care or after-care of persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

Where a child whose care or after-care is for the time being undertaken by a local health authority in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid is accommodated in a home or other accommodation provided under the said section fifteen by the same authority as children authority, the authority may make such adjustments as appear to them to be appropriate between the accounts kept by them as local health authority and the accounts kept by them as children authority.

Nothing in this Act, or in any other enactment, shall be construed as preventing a children authority from receiving into their care under section one of the Children Act, 1948, a child who is mentally disordered, nor as preventing a local health authority from accommodating in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid any child who is in the care of that or any other authority as a children authority.

In this section " child " has the same meaning as in the Children Act, 1948.

Section eight of the Children Act, 1948, and subsection (6) of section five of the Matrimonial Proceedings (Children) Act, 1958 (which provide for the removal from the care of local authorities of children who come under control under the enactments relating to mental deficiency or to lunacy and mental treatment) shall cease to have effect.

Where it appears to the local health authority to be appropriate that a child of compulsory school age who is the subject of a decision recorded under section fifty-seven of the Education Act, 1944, should receive training at a centre provided or made available under arrangements made by that authority under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the authority may give notice in writing to the parent of the child requiring him to cause the child to attend, either by the day or, if the notice so directs, as a resident, at such centre, being a centre provided or made available as aforesaid, as may be specified in the notice at such times or for such periods as may be so specified.

Before giving a notice under this section, the local health authority shall satisfy themselves that the child is not receiving adequate training comparable with the training which he would receive at the centre; and if any person to whom such a notice is given is aggrieved by the notice on the ground that the child is receiving such training, he may require the local health authority to refer the question to the Minister of Health, and that Minister may either confirm the notice or direct that it be amended or withdrawn.

Subject to subsection (2) of this section, if any person fails to comply with a notice given to him under subsection (1) of this section, he shall, unless the child is receiving adequate training comparable with the training which he would receive at the centre, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence to a fine not exceeding one pound, in the case of a second offence to a fine not exceeding five pounds, and in the case of a third or subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding ten pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month, or to both.

It shall be the duty of the local health authority to institute proceedings for an offence under this section wherever, in their opinion, the institution of such proceedings is necessary, and no such proceedings shall be instituted except by or on behalf of a local health authority.

For the purposes of this section a child shall be treated as of compulsory school age so long as, under the Education Act, 1944, he would be deemed to be of compulsory school age if he were a registered pupil at a special school, and " parent" has the same meaning as in that Act.

If in any such proceedings it is proved that the child has no fixed abode, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect as if paragraph (c) were omitted; but if the parent proves that he is engaged in a trade or business of such a nature as to require him to travel from place to place, and that the child has attended at the training centre as regularly as the nature of the trade or business of the parent permits, the parent shall be acquitted.

For the purposes of any such proceedings as aforesaid in respect of a child who is residing at a training centre, the parent shall be deemed to have failed to cause the child to attend the centre if the child is absent without leave during any part of the period during which the training is given unless prevented from being present by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause.

In this section " child of compulsory school age" and " parent" have the same meaning as in section twelve of this Act, and " leave ", in relation to a training centre, means leave granted by any person authorised in that behalf by the local health authority by whom the training centre is provided.

Part VI of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which relates, among other things, to the registration of nursing homes) shall apply in relation to mental nursing homes as it applies to nursing homes to which the said Part VI applied immediately before the commencement of this Act, not being maternity homes, but shall so apply subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act.

In this Part of this Act " registration authority ", in relation to a mental nursing home, means the council of the county or county borough in which the home is situated ; and the power of a county council under section one hundred and ninety-four of the Public Health Act, 1936, to delegate its functions under Part VI of that Act relating to nursing homes to the council of a county district shall include power to delegate its functions under this Part of this Act relating to mental nursing homes.

Section one hundred and ninety-two of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which enables the registration authority to exempt certain voluntary institutions from the provisions of Part VI of that Act relating to nursing homes) shall not apply to mental nursing homes.

Subject to the next following section, the registers to be kept by the registration authority under the said Part VI as applied by this Part of this Act shall be in such form, and shall contain such particulars as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Minister; and such regulations may make provision as to the information to be supplied on applications for registration in respect of mental nursing homes.

Any application for registration under the said Part VI in respect of a mental nursing home shall specify whether or not it is proposed to receive therein patients who are liable to be detained under the following provisions of this Act; and where any person is so registered in pursuance of an application stating that it is proposed to receive such patients, that fact shall be specified in the certificate of registration, and the particulars of the registration shall be entered by the registration authority in a separate part of the register.

It shall be a condition of the registration of any person in respect of a mental nursing home that the number of persons kept at any one time in the home (excluding persons carrying on or employed in the home and their families) does not exceed such number as may be specified in the certificate of registration ; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision, the registration may be effected subject to such conditions (to be specified in the certificate) as the registration authority consider appropriate for regulating the age, sex or other category of persons who may be received in the home.

If any condition imposed by or under subsection (2) of this section is not complied with, the person carrying on the home shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding five pounds and in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision, the power of the registration authority to cancel registration under section one hundred and eighty-eight of the Public Health Act, 1936, shall include power to cancel the registration on the ground that any such condition has not been complied with.

Any person guilty of an offence against regulations made under subsection (1) of this section shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding five pounds and in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision, the power of the registration authority to cancel registration under section one hundred and eighty-eight of the Public Health Act, 1936, shall include power to cancel the registration of any person on the ground that he has been convicted of such an offence.

A registration authority may, and shall if so required by the Minister, make separate byelaws in respect of mental nursing homes under section one hundred and ninety of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which enables byelaws to prescribe the records to be kept and notices to be given in respect of patients in nursing homes).

Subject to the provisions of this section, any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister or by the registration authority may, at any time, after producing, if asked to do so, some duly authenticated document showing that he is so authorised, enter and inspect any premises in the area of the authority which are used, or which that person has reasonable cause to believe to be used, for the purposes of a mental nursing home, and may inspect any records kept in accordance with byelaws made under section one hundred and ninety of the Public Health Act, 1936.

In this section " registered hospital" means a hospital registered as mentioned in subsection (9) of section two hundred and thirty-one of the Lunacy Act, 1890.

Section one hundred and ninety-one of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which relates to inspection) shall not apply to mental nursing homes or any premises used or believed to be used as such.

If in the case of a mental nursing home the particulars of the registration of which are entered in the separate part of the register referred to in subsection (1) of section fifteen of this Act the registration is cancelled under section one hundred and eighty-eight of the Public Health Act, 1936, at a time when any patient is liable to be detained in the home under any of the following provisions of this Act, the registration shall, notwithstanding the cancellation, continue in force until the expiration of the period of two months beginning with the date of the cancellation, or until every such patient has ceased to be so liable, whichever first occurs.

Subject to the provisions of this and the next following section, sections thirty-seven to forty of the National Assistance Act, 1948 (which relate to the registration, inspection and conduct of homes for disabled persons and old persons) shall apply in relation to a residential home for mentally disordered persons as they apply in relation to homes to which those enactments applied immediately before the commencement of this Act.

A residential home for mentally disordered persons shall be deemed not to be a voluntary home within the meaning of Part V of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, or Part IV of the Children Act, 1948; and a child who is resident in a residential home for mentally disordered persons shall not be a foster child within the meaning of Part I of the Children Act, 1958, or a protected child within the meaning of Part IV of the Adoption Act, 1958.

It shall be a condition of the registration of any person in respect of a residential home for mentally disordered persons that the number of persons kept at any one time in the home (excluding persons carrying on or employed in the home and their families) does not exceed such number as may be specified in the certificate of registration; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision, the registration may be effected subject to such conditions (to be specified in the certificate) as the registration authority consider appropriate for regulating the age, sex or other category of persons who may be received in the home.

If any condition imposed by or under subsection (1) of this section is not complied with, the person carrying on the home shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding five pounds and in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds ; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision the power of the registration authority to cancel registration under subsection (4) of section thirty-seven of the National Assistance Act, 1948, shall include power to cancel the registration on the ground that any such condition has not been complied with.

In relation to residential homes for mentally disordered persons, section forty of the National Assistance Act, 1948, shall have effect as if paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of that section (which enables the Minister to make regulations for purposes corresponding with subsection (1) of this section) were omitted.

The power of the Minister to make regulations under section forty of the National Assistance Act, 1948, with respect to the conduct of residential homes for mentally disordered persons shall include power to make regulations as to the records to be kept and notices to be given in respect of persons received in such homes.

The powers of inspection conferred by section thirty-nine of the said Act, in its application to residential homes for mentally disordered persons, shall include power to inspect any records required to be, kept in accordance with regulations made by virtue of subsection (1) of this section under section forty of that Act.

The registration authority may prosecute for any offence under this Part of this Act, or any enactment thereby applied.

Section two hundred and ninety-eight of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which restricts the right to prosecute for offences under that Act) shall not apply to offences under Part VI of that Act in respect of mental nursing homes.

A patient may be admitted to a hospital, and there detained for the period allowed by this section, in pursuance of an application (in this Act referred to as an application for admission for observation) made in accordance with the following provisions of this section.

An application for admission for observation shall be founded on the written recommendations in the prescribed form of two medical practitioners, including in each case a statement that in the opinion of the practitioner the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (2) of this section are complied with.

Subject to the provisions of section fifty-two of this Act (in a case where an application is made under that section for transferring the functions of the nearest relative of the patient), a patient admitted to hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for observation may be detained for a period not exceeding twenty-eight days beginning with the day on which he is admitted, but shall not be detained thereafter unless, before the expiration of that period, he has become liable to be detained by virtue of a subsequent application, order or direction under any of the following provisions of this Act.

A patient may be admitted to a hospital, and there detained for the period allowed by the following provisions of this Act, in pursuance of an application (in this Act referred to as an application for admission for treatment) made in accordance with the following provisions of this section.

An application for admission for treatment, and any recommendation given for the purposes of such an application, may describe the patient as suffering from more than one of the forms of mental disorder referred to in subsection (2) of this section; but the application shall be of no effect unless the patient is described in each of the recommendations as suffering from the same one of those forms of mental disorder, whether or not he is also described in either of those recommendations as suffering from another of those forms.

An application for admission for treatment made on the ground that the patient is suffering from psychopathic disorder or subnormality, and no other form of mental disorder referred to in subsection (2) of this section, shall state the age of the patient, or, if his exact age is not known to the applicant, shall state (if it be the fact) that the patient is believed to be under the age of twenty-one years.

Subject to the provisions of this section, an application for the admission of a patient for observation or for treatment may be made either by the nearest relative of the patient or by a mental welfare officer; and every such application shall be addressed to the managers of the hospital to which admission is sought and shall specify the qualification of the applicant to make the application.

An application for admission for treatment shall not be made by a mental welfare officer if the nearest relative of the patient has notified that officer, or the local health authority by whom that officer is appointed, that he objects to the application being-made, and, without prejudice to the foregoing provision, shall not be made by such an officer except after consultation with the person (if any) appearing to be the nearest relative of the patient unless it appears to that officer that in the circumstances such consultation is not reasonably practicable or would involve unreasonable delay.

No application for the admission of a patient shall be made by any person unless that person has personally seen the patient within the period of fourteen days ending with the date of the application.

An application for the admission of a patient shall be sufficient if the recommendations on which it is founded are given either as separate recommendations, each signed by a medical practitioner, or as a joint recommendation signed by two such practitioners.

The recommendations required for the purposes of an application for the admission of a patient under this Part of this Act (in this Act referred to as " medical recommendations ") shall be signed on or before the date of the application, and shall be given by practitioners who have personally examined the patient either together or at an interval of not more than seven days.

Of the medical recommendations given for the purposes of any such application, one shall be given by a practitioner approved for the purposes of this section by a local health authority as having special experience in the diagnosis Or treatment of mental disorder; and unless that practitioner has previous acquaintance with the patient, the other such recommendation shall, if practicable, be given by a medical practitioner who has such previous acquaintance.

Where the application is for the admission of the patient to a hospital not being a mental nursing home, one (but not more than one) of the medical recommendations may be given by a practitioner on the staff of that hospital, except where the patient is proposed to be accommodated under section five of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to accommodation for private patients).

In any case of urgent necessity, an application for admission for observation may be made in respect of a patient in accordance with the following provisions of this section, and any application so made is in this Act referred to as an emergency application.

An emergency application may be made either by a mental welfare officer or by any relative of the patient; and every such application shall include a statement (to be verified by the medical recommendation first referred to in subsection (3) of this section) that it is of urgent necessity for the patient to be admitted and detained under section twenty-five of this Act, and that compliance with the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act relating to applications for admission for observation would involve undesirable delay.

In relation to an emergency application, section twenty-seven of this Act shall have effect as if in subsection (3) of that section for the words " fourteen days " there were substituted the words " three days ".

If, in the case of a patient who is an in-patient in a hospital, not being liable to be detained therein under this Part of this Act, it appears to the medical practitioner in charge of the treatment of the patient that an application ought to be made under this Part of this Act for the admission of the patient to hospital, he may furnish to the managers a report in writing to that effect; and in any such case the patient may be detained in the hospital for a period of three days beginning with the day on which the report is so furnished.

Where a patient is admitted within the said, period to the hospital specified in such an application as aforesaid, or, being within that hospital, is treated by virtue of section thirty of this Act as if he had been so admitted, the application shall be sufficient authority for the managers to detain the patient in the hospital in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

Any application for the admission of a patient under this Part of this Act which appears to be duly made and to be founded on the necessary medical recommendations may be acted upon without further proof of the signature or qualification of the person by whom the application or any such medical recommendation, is made or given, or of any matter of fact or opinion stated therein.

A patient who is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment may apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal within the period of six months beginning with the day on which he is so admitted, or with the day on which he attains the age of sixteen years, whichever is the later.

Where a patient is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment, any previous application under this Part of this Act by virtue of which he was liable to be detained in a hospital or subject to guardianship shall cease to have effect.

If within the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which a patient has been admitted to a hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for observation or for treatment 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, within that period and with the consent of the managers of the hospital, 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.

Where the medical recommendations upon which an application for admission is founded are, taken together, insufficient to warrant the detention of the patient 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 subsection (4) of section twenty-six of this Act.

Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorising the giving of notice in respect of an application made as an emergency application under section twenty-nine of this Act, or the detention of a patient admitted in pursuance of such an application, after the period of seventy-two hours referred to in subsection (3) of that section, unless the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) and (b) of that subsection are complied with or would be complied with apart from any error or defect to which this section applies.

A patient may be received into guardianship, for the period allowed by the following provisions of this Act, in pursuance of an application (in this Act referred to as a guardianship application) made in accordance with the following provisions of this section.

The person named as guardian in a guardianship application may be either a local health authority or any other person (including the applicant himself); but a guardianship application in which a person other than a local health authority is named as guardian shall be of no effect unless it is accepted on behalf of that person by the local health authority for the area in which he resides.

Every such application shall be forwarded to the local health authority therein named as guardian, or, as the case may be, to the local health authority for the area in which the person so named resides, and, except where the person so named is the local health authority, shall be accompanied by a statement in writing by the person so named that he is willing to act as guardian.

Where a guardianship application, duly made under the foregoing provisions of this Act and forwarded to the local health authority within the period allowed by subsection (2) of this section, is accepted by that authority, the application shall, subject to regulations made by the Minister, confer on the authority or person therein named as guardian, to the exclusion of any other person, all such powers as would be exercisable by them or him in relation to the patient if they or he were the father of the patient and the patient were under the age of fourteen years.

The period within which a guardianship application is required for the purposes of this section to be forwarded to the local health authority is the period of fourteen days beginning with the date on which the patient was last examined by a medical practitioner before giving a medical recommendation for the purposes of the application.

A guardianship application which appears to be duly made and to be founded on the necessary medical recommendations may be acted upon without further proof of the signature or qualification of the person by whom the application or any such medical recommendation is made or given, or of any matter of fact or opinion stated therein.

If within the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which a guardianship application has been accepted by the local health authority 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, within that period and with the consent of that authority, 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.

A patient who is received into guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application may apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal within the period of six months beginning with the day on which the application is accepted, or with the day on which he attains the age of sixteen years, whichever is the later.

Where a patient is received into guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application, any previous application under this Part of this Act by virtue of which he was subject to guardianship or liable to be detained in a hospital shall cease to have effect.

Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, the Minister may make regulations for regulating the exercise by the guardians of patients received into guardianship under this Part of this Act of their powers as such, and for imposing on such guardians, and upon local health authorities in the case of patients under the guardianship of persons other than local health authorities, such duties as he considers necessary or expedient in the interests of the patients.

Regulations under this section may in particular make provision for requiring the patients to be visited, on such occasions or at such intervals as may be prescribed by the regulations, on behalf of such local health authorities as may be so prescribed, and shall provide for the appointment, in the case of every patient subject to the guardianship of a person other than a local health authority, of a medical practitioner to act as the nominated medical attendant of the patient.

Any postal packet addressed to a patient detained in a hospital under this Part of this Act may be withheld from the patient if, in the opinion of the responsible medical officer, the receipt of the packet would be calculated to interfere with the treatment of the patient or to cause him unnecessary distress; and any packet so withheld shall, if the name and address of the sender are sufficiently identified therein, be returned to him by post.

Nothing in paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of this section shall be construed as authorising a responsible medical officer to open or examine the contents of any postal packet unless he is of opinion that the patient is suffering from mental disorder of a kind calculated to lead him to send such communications as are referred to in that paragraph.

Except as provided by this section, it shall not be lawful to prevent or impede the delivery to a patient detained as aforesaid of any postal packet addressed to him and delivered by the Post Office, or the delivery to the Post Office of any postal packet addressed by such a patient and delivered by him for dispatch.

In this section "postal packet" has the same meaning as in the Post Office Act, 1953; and the provisions of this section shall have effect notwithstanding anything in section fifty-six of that Act.

For the purpose of advising whether an application to a Mental Health Review Tribunal should be made by or in respect of a patient who is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under this Part of this Act, or of furnishing information as to the condition of a patient for the purposes of such an application, or of advising as to the exercise by the nearest relative of any such patient of any power to order his discharge, any medical practitioner authorised by or on behalf of the patient or other person who is entitled to make or has made the application, or by the nearest relative of the patient, as the case may be, may, at any reasonable time, visit the patient and examine him in private.

Any person authorised for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section to visit a patient may require the production of and inspect any documents constituting or alleged to constitute the authority for the detention of the patient under this Part of this Act; and any person so authorised, being a medical practioner, may examine the patient in private, and may require the production of and inspect any other medical records relating to the treatment of the patient in the home.

If in the case of a patient who is for the time being detained in a hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment, or subject to guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application, it appears to the responsible medical officer that the patient is suffering from a form of mental disorder other than the form or forms specified in the application, he may furnish to the managers of the hospital, or to the guardian, as the case may be, a report to that effect; and where a report is so furnished, the application shall have effect as if that other form of mental disorder were specified therein.

Where a report is furnished under this section, in respect of a patient who has attained the age of sixteen years, the managers or guardian shall cause the patient and the nearest relative to be informed, and the patient or that relative may, within the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the day on which he is so informed, apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal.

In relation to a patient who is subject to the guardianship of a person other than a local health authority, this section shall have effect as if for any reference to the responsible medical officer there were substituted a reference to the nominated medical attendant of the patient.

The responsible medical officer may grant to any patient who is for the time being liable to be detained in a hospital under this Part of this Act leave to be absent from the hospital subject to such conditions (if any) as that officer considers necessary in the interests of the patient or for the protection of other persons.

Leave of absence may be granted to a patient under this section either indefinitely or on specified occasions or for any specified period; and where leave is so granted for a specified period, that period may be extended by further leave granted in the absence of the patient.

Where it appears to the responsible medical officer that it is necessary so to do in the interests of the patient or for the protection of other persons, he may, upon granting leave of absence under this section, direct that the patient remain in custody during his absence; and where leave of absence is so granted the patient may be kept in the custody of any officer on the staff of the hospital, or of any other person authorised in writing by the managers of the hospital.

In any case where a patient is absent from a hospital in pursuance of leave of absence granted under this section, and it appears to the responsible medical officer that it is necessary so to do in the interests of the patient's health or safety or for the protection of other persons, that officer may, subject to subsection (5) of this section, by notice in writing given to the patient or to the person for the time being in charge of the patient, revoke the leave of absence and recall the patient to the hospital.

Where a patient who is for the time being subject to guardianship under this Part of this Act absents himself without the leave of the guardian from the place at which he is required by the guardian to reside, he may, subject to the provisions of this section, be taken into custody and returned to that place by any officer on the staff of a local health authority, by any constable, or by any person authorised in writing by the guardian or a local health authority.

In this Act " absent without leave " means absent from any hospital or other place and liable to be taken into custody and returned under this section, and kindred expressions shall be construed accordingly.

Without prejudice to the foregoing provisions of this section, any patient who is for the time being liable to be detained under this Part of this Act in a hospital vested in the Minister under the National Health Service Act, 1946, or any accommodation used under Part II of that Act by the managers of such a hospital, may at any time be removed to any other such hospital or accommodation for which the managers of the first mentioned hospital are also the managers; and, paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of this section shall apply in relation to a patient so removed as it applies in relation to a patient transferred in pursuance of regulations made under this section.

Regulations made under this section may make provision for regulating the conveyance to their destination of patients authorised to be transferred or removed in pursuance of the regulations or under subsection (3) of this section.

A patient who, having attained the age of sixteen years, is transferred from guardianship to a hospital in pursuance of regulations made under this section may, within the period of six months beginning with the day on which he is so transferred, apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal.

If any such person, not having given notice under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, is incapacitated by illness or any other cause from performing the functions of guardian of the patient, those functions may, during his incapacity, be performed on his behalf by the local health authority or by any other person approved for the purpose by that authority.

If it appears to the county court, upon application made by a mental welfare officer, that any person other than a local health authority having the guardianship of a patient received into guardianship under this Part of this Act has performed his functions negligently or in a manner contrary to the interests of the patient, the court may order that the guardianship of the patient be transferred to the local health authority or to any other person approved for the purpose by that authority.

Where the guardianship of a patient is transferred to a local health authority or other person by or under this section, paragraph (c) of subsection (2) of section forty-one of this Act shall apply as if the patient had been transferred into the guardianship of that authority or person in pursuance of regulations under that section.

Subject to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, a patient admitted to hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment, and a patient placed under guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application, may be detained in a hospital or kept under guardianship for a period not exceeding one year beginning with the day on which he was so admitted, or the day on which the guardianship application was accepted, as the case may be, but shall not be so detained or kept for any longer period unless the authority for his detention or guardianship is renewed under the following provisions of this section.

Within the period of two months ending on the day on which a patient who is liable to be detained in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment would cease under this section to be so liable in default of the renewal of the authority for his detention, it shall be the duty of the responsible medical officer to examine the patient; and if it appears to him that it is necessary in the Interests of the patient's health or safety or for the protection of other persons that the patient should continue to be liable to be detained, he shall furnish to the managers of the hospital where the patient is liable to be detained a report to that effect in the prescribed form.

Where a report is duly furnished under subsection (3) or subsection (4) of this section, the authority for the detention or guardianship of the patient shall be thereby renewed for the period prescribed in that case by subsection (2) of this section.

Where a report under this section is furnished in respect of a patient who has attained the age of sixteen years, the managers or the local health authority, as the case may be, shall, unless they discharge the patient, cause him to be informed, and the patient may, within the period for which the authority for his detention or guardianship is renewed by virtue of the report, apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal.

Notwithstanding anything in section forty-three of this Act, a patient who is subject to guardianship by virtue of a guardianship application as a psychopathic or subnormal patient shall cease to be so subject on attaining the age of twenty-five years; and a patient who is liable to be detained by virtue of an application for admission for treatment as a psychopathic or subnormal patient shall cease to be so liable on attaining that age unless the authority for his detention is renewed under the following provisions of this section.

Within the period of two months ending on the day on which a patient would cease under this section to be liable to be detained in a hospital in default of the renewal of the authority for his detention, the responsible medical officer shall examine the patient, and if it appears to him that the patient, if released from the hospital upon attaining the age of twenty-five years, would be likely to act in a manner dangerous to other persons or to himself, shall furnish to the managers a report to that effect in the prescribed form; and where a report is duly furnished under this subsection the authority for the detention of the patient shall be thereby renewed, and shall continue in force accordingly after the patient attains the said age, but without prejudice to the application to the patient of the provisions of section forty-three of this Act.

Where a report under subsection (2) of this section is furnished in respect of a patient, the managers shall cause the patient and the nearest relative of the patient to be informed, and the patient and that relative may, at any time before the expiration of the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the day on which the patient attains the age of twenty-five years, apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal.

Where the period for which a patient is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship is extended by virtue of this section, any examination and report to be made and furnished under subsection (3) or subsection (4) of section forty-three or subsection (2) of section forty-four of this Act may be made and furnished within that period as so extended.

Where the authority for the detention or guardianship of a patient is renewed by virtue of this section after the day on which, apart from this section, that authority would have expired under section forty-three or section forty_four of this Act, the renewal shall take effect as from that day.

Where a patient who is liable to be detained by virtue of an application for admission for treatment or is subject to guardianship by virtue of a guardianship application is detained in custody in pursuance of any sentence or order passed or made by a court in the United Kingdom (including an order committing or remanding him in custody), and is so detained for a period exceeding, or for successive periods exceeding in the aggregate, six months, the application shall cease to have effect at the expiration of that period.

Subject to the provisions of this and the next following section, a patient who is for the time being liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under this Part of this Act shall cease to be so liable or subject if an order in writing discharging him from detention or guardianship (in this Act referred to as an order for discharge) is made in accordance with the following provisions of this section.

Where the patient is liable to be detained in a mental nursing home in pursuance of an application for admission for observation or for treatment, an order for his discharge may, without prejudice to subsection (2) of this section, be made by the registration authority within the meaning of Part III of this Act and, if the patient is maintained under a contract with a regional hospital board, by that board.

The powers conferred by this section on any authority or body of persons may be exercised by any three or more members of that authority or body authorised by them in that behalf.

Where a report under subsection (2) of section forty-four of this Act has been furnished in respect of a patient, an order for discharge shall not be made by the nearest relative of the patient during the period of six months beginning with the date of the report.

In any case where a report under subsection (2) of this section is furnished in respect of a patient, the managers shall cause the nearest relative of the patient to be informed, and that relative may, within the period of twenty-eight days beginning with the day on which he is so informed, apply to a Mental Health Review Tribunal in respect of the patient

In deducing relationships for the purposes of this section, an adopted person shall be treated as the child of the person or persons by whom he was adopted and not as the child of any other person; and subject as aforesaid, any relationship of the half-blood shall be treated as a relationship of the whole blood, and an illegitimate person shall be treated as the legitimate child of his mother.

In this Part of this Act, subject to the provisions of this section and to the following provisions of this Part of this Act, the " nearest relative " means the person first described in subsection (1) of this section who is for the time being surviving, relatives of the whole blood being preferred to relatives of the same description of the half-blood and the elder or eldest of two or more relatives described in any paragraph of that subsection being preferred to the other or others of those relatives, regardless of sex.

In this section " adoption order " means an order for the adoption of any person made under Part I of the Adoption Act, 1958, or any previous enactment relating to the adoption of children, or any corresponding enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, and " court" includes a court in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

In this section " husband " and " wife " include a person who is living with the patient as the patient's husband or wife, as the case may be (or, if the patient is for the time being an in-patient in a hospital, was so living until the patient was admitted), and has been or had been so living for a period of not less than six months ; but a person shall not be treated by virtue of this subsection as the nearest relative of a married patient unless the husband or wife of the patient is disregarded by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (4) of this section.

Subsection (4) of section forty-nine of this Act shall apply in relation to a person who is, or who is one of the persons, deemed to be the nearest relative of a patient by virtue of this section as it applies in relation to a person who would be the nearest relative under subsection (3) of that section.

A patient shall be treated for the purposes of this section as being in the custody of another person if he would be in that other person's custody apart from section thirty-four of this Act.

In this section " court" includes a court in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and " enactment " includes an enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

The county court may, upon application made in accordance with the provisions of this section in respect of a patient, by order direct that the functions under this Part of this Act of the nearest relative of the patient shall, during the continuance in force of the order, be exercisable by the applicant, or by any other person specified in the application, being a person who, in the opinion of the court, is a proper person to act as the patient's nearest relative and is willing to do so.

While an order made under this section is in force, the provisions of this Part of this Act (other than this and the next following section) shall apply in relation to the patient as if for any reference to the nearest relative of the patient there were substituted a reference to the person having the functions of that relative and (without prejudice to the next following section) shall so apply notwithstanding that the person who was the patient's nearest relative when the order was made is no longer his nearest relative.

Where an order is made under this section in respect of a patient who is or subsequently becomes liable Jo be detained or subject to guardianship under this Part of this Act, the nearest relative of the patient may make an application to a Mental Health Review Tribunal in respect of the patient within the period of twelve months beginning with the date of the order, and in any subsequent period of twelve months during which the order continues in force.

An order made under the said section fifty-two in respect of a patient may be varied by the county court, on the application of the person having the functions of the nearest relative by virtue of the order or on the application of a mental welfare officer, by substituting for the first-mentioned person a local health authority or any other person who in the opinion of the court is a proper person to exercise those functions, being an authority or person who is willing to do so.

If the person having the functions of the nearest relative of a patient by virtue of an order under the said section fifty-two dies, the foregoing provisions of this section shall apply as if for any reference to that person there were substituted a reference to any relative of the patient, and until the order is discharged or varied under those provisions the functions of the nearest relative under this Part of this Act shall not be exercisable by any person.

The discharge or variation under this section of an order made under the said section fifty-two shall not affect the validity of anything previously done in pursuance of the order.

It shall be the duty of a mental welfare officer to make an application for admission to hospital or a guardianship application in respect of a patient within the area of the local authority by whom that officer is appointed in any case where he is satisfied that such an application ought to be made and is of opinion, having regard to any wishes expressed by relatives of the patient or any other relevant circumstances, that it is necessary or proper for the application to be made by him.

Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorising or requiring an application to be made by a mental welfare officer in contravention of the provisions of subsection (2) of section twenty-seven of this Act, or of that subsection as applied by section thirty-three of this Act, or as restricting th6 power of a mental welfare officer to make any application under this Act.

The Minister may make regulations for prescribing anything which, under this Part of this Act, is required or authorised to be prescribed, and otherwise for carrying this Part of this Act into full effect.

Without prejudice to the foregoing provisions of this section, but subject to subsection (4) of section forty-seven of this Act, regulations under this section may determine the manner in which functions under this Part of this Act of the managers of hospitals, local health authorities or regional hospital boards are to be exercised, and such regulations may in particular specify the circumstances in which, and the conditions subject to which, any such functions may be performed by officers of or other persons acting on behalf of those managers, authorities or boards.

An application for the admission to hospital of an infant who is a ward of court may be made under this Part of this Act with the leave of the court; and subsection (2) of section twenty-seven of this Act shall not apply in relation to an application so made.

Where an infant being a ward of court is liable to be detained in a hospital by virtue of an application for admission under this Part of this Act, any power exercisable under this Part of this Act in relation to the patient by his nearest relative shall be exercisable by or with the leave of the court.

Nothing in this Part of this Act shall be construed as authorising the making of a guardianship application in respect of an infant who is a ward of court, or the transfer into guardianship of any such infant.

Except where otherwise expressly provided, this Part, of this Act applies in relation to a mental nursing home, being a home in respect of which the particulars of registration are for the time being entered in the separate part of the register kept for the purposes of subsection (1) of section fifteen of this Act, as it applies in relation to a hospital, and references in this Part of this Act to a hospital, and any reference in this Act to a hospital to which this Part of this Act applies, shall be construed accordingly.

For the purposes of this Part of this Act a patient who is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship by virtue of an application for admission for treatment or a guardianship application shall be treated as being so liable or subject as a psychopathic or subnormal patient if the form of disorder specified in the application, or in the application as amended under section thirty-eight of this Act, is psychopathic disorder or subnormality, or psychopathic disorder and subnormality, and no other form of mental disorder.

Where a person is charged before a magistrates' court with any act or omission as an offence and the court would have power, on convicting him of that offence, to make an order under subsection (1) of this section in his case as being a person suffering from mental illness or severe subnormality, then, if the court is satisfied that the accused did the act or made the omission charged, the court may, if it thinks fit, make such an order without convicting him.

An order for the admission of an offender to a hospital (in this Part of this Act referred to as a hospital order) shall not be made under this section unless the court is satisfied that arrangements have been made for the admission of the offender to that hospital in the event of such an order being made by the court, and for his admission thereto within a period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date of the making of such an order.

An order placing an offender under the guardianship of a local health authority or of any other person (in this Part of this Act referred to as a guardianship order) shall not be made under this section unless the court is satisfied that that authority or person is willing to receive the offender into guardianship.

A hospital order or guardianship order shall specify the form or forms of mental disorder referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section from which, upon the evidence taken into account under that paragraph, the offender is found by the court to be suffering; and no such order shall be made unless the offender is described by each of the practitioners whose evidence is taken into account as aforesaid 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.

Where an order is made under this section, the court shall not pass sentence of imprisonment or impose a fine or make a probation order in respect of the offence, but may make any other order which the court has power to make apart from this section; and for the purposes of this subsection " sentence of imprisonment" includes any sentence or order for detention, including an order sending an offender to an approved school.

A juvenile court shall not make a hospital order or guardianship order in respect of a person brought before the court under section sixty-four of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, as being beyond the control of his parent or guardian unless the court is satisfied that the parent or guardian understands the results which will follow from the order and consents to its being made.

Where a hospital order is made by virtue of this section in respect of a child or young person, the court may also make an order committing him to the care of a fit person under the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933; but except as aforesaid no order shall be made under section sixty-two or sixty-four of that Act in conjunction with a hospital order or guardianship order.

Of the medical practitioners whose evidence is taken into account under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section sixty of this Act, at least one shall be a practitioner approved for the purposes of section twenty-eight of this Act by a local health authority as having special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders.

For the purposes of the said paragraph (a) a report in writing purporting to be signed by a medical practitioner may, subject to the provisions of this section, be received in evidence without proof of the signature or qualifications of the practitioner ; but the court may in any case require that the practitioner by whom such a report was signed be called to give oral evidence.

In relation to a child or young person brought before a juvenile court under section sixty-two or section sixty-four of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, subsection (3) of this section shall have effect as if for references to the accused there were substituted references to the child or young person ; and in the case of a child or young person brought before the court under the said section sixty-four paragraphs (a) to (e) of that subsection shall have effect as if those references included references to his parent or guardian, and as if in the said paragraph (b) the words from " or, where " to the end of the paragraph were omitted.

A guardianship order shall confer on the authority or person therein named as guardian the like powers as a guardianship application made and accepted under Part IV of this Act.

Where a patient is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of a hospital order, or placed under guardianship by a guardianship order, any previous application, hospital order or guardianship order by virtue of which he was liable to be detained in a hospital or subject to guardianship shall cease to have effect:

Provided that if the first-mentioned order, or the conviction on which it was made, is quashed on appeal, this subsection shall not apply and section forty-six of this Act shall have effect as if during any period for which the patient was liable to be detained or subject to guardianship under the order, he had been detained in custody as mentioned in that section.

The court by which a hospital order is made may give such directions as it thinks fit for the conveyance of the patient to a place of safety and his detention therein pending his admission to the hospital within the period of twenty-eight days referred to in subsection (1) of section sixty-three of this Act.

If within the said period of twenty-eight days it appears to the Minister that by reason of an emergency or other special circumstances it is not practicable for the patient to be received into the hospital specified in the order, he may give directions for the admission of the patient to such other hospital as appears to be appropriate in lieu of the hospital so specified; and where such directions are given the Minister shall cause the person having the custody of the patient to be informed, and the hospital, order shall have effect as if the hospital specified in the directions were substituted for the hospital specified in the order.

Where a hospital order is made in respect of an offender by a court of assize or quarter sessions, and it appears to the court, having regard to the nature of the offence, the antecedents of the offender and the risk of his committing further offences if set at large, that it is necessary for the protection of the public so to do, the court may, subject to the provisions of this section, further order that the offender shall be subject to the special restrictions set out in this section, either without limit of time or during such period as may be specified in the order.

An order under this section (in this Act referred to as an order restricting discharge) shall not be made in the case of any person unless at least one of the medical practitioners whose evidence is taken into account by the court under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section sixty of this Act has given evidence orally before the court.

A hospital order shall not cease to have effect under subsection (5) of section sixty-three of this Act if an order restricting the discharge of the patient is in force at the material time.

Where an order restricting the discharge of a patient ceases to have effect while the relevant hospital order continues in force, the provisions of section sixty-three of this Act and the Third Schedule to this Act shall apply to the patient as if he had been admitted to the hospital in pursuance of a hospital order (without an order restricting his discharge) made on the date on which the order restricting his discharge ceased to have effect.

If the Secretary of State is satisfied that an order restricting the discharge of a patient is no longer required for the protection of the public, he may direct that the patient shall cease to be subject to the special restrictions set out in section sixty-five of this Act; and where the Secretary of State so directs, the order restricting the discharge of the patient shall cease to have effect, and subsection (5) of the last foregoing section shall apply accordingly.

At any time while an order restricting the discharge of a patient is in force, the Secretary of State may, if he thinks fit, by warrant discharge the patient from hospital, either absolutely or subject to conditions; and where a person is absolutely discharged under this subsection, he shall thereupon cease to be liable to be detained by virtue of the relevant hospital order, and the order restricting his discharge shall cease to have effect accordingly.

If an order restricting the discharge of a patient ceases to have effect after the patient has been conditionally discharged under this section, the patient shall, unless previously recalled under the last foregoing subsection, be deemed to be absolutely discharged on the date when the order ceases to have effect, and shall cease to be liable to be detained by virtue of the relevant hospital order accordingly.

The Secretary of State may, if satisfied that the attendance at any place in Great Britain of a patient who is subject to an order restricting discharge is desirable in the interests of justice or for the purposes of any public inquiry, direct him to be taken to that place; and where a patient is directed under this subsection to be taken to any place he shall, unless the Secretary of State otherwise directs, be kept in custody while being so taken, while at that place and while being taken back to the hospital in which he is liable to be detained.

The Secretary of State may at any time refer to a Mental Health Review Tribunal for their advice the case of a patient who is for the time being subject to an order restricting his discharge, and, where so requested in writing in accordance with the following provisions of this section by such a patient who is detained in hospital, shall do so within the period of two months beginning with the receipt of the request unless during that period the patient is discharged absolutely or conditionally under subsection (2) of this section or the order restricting his discharge ceases to have effect.

A patient shall not be entitled to make a request to the Secretary of State under the last foregoing subsection before the expiration of the period of one year beginning with the date of the relevant hospital order, but subject as aforesaid may make one such request during each period during which he could have made an application to a Mental Health Review Tribunal if he had been subject to a hospital order "without an order restricting his discharge and the authority for his detention had been renewed at the requisite intervals.

Where a patient subject to an order restricting his discharge has been conditionally discharged under subsection (2) of this section and subsequently recalled to hospital, the last foregoing subsection shall apply as if the relevant hospital order had been made on the day on which he returns or is returned to hospital, but he may also make one such request as aforesaid between the expiration of the period of six months and the expiration of the period of one year beginning with that day.

Subsection (2) of section twenty-nine of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948 (which specifies the court of quarter sessions by which an offender committed to quarter sessions for sentence is to be dealt with) shall apply in relation to the committal of an offender under this section as it applies in relation to the committal of an offender for sentence under section twenty-nine of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952.

The power of a magistrates' court under section twenty-nine of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952 (which enables such a court to commit an offender to quarter sessions where the court is of opinion that greater punishment should be inflicted for the offence than the court has power to inflict) shall also be exercisable by a magistrates' court where it is of opinion that greater punishment should be inflicted as aforesaid on the offender unless a hospital order is made in his case with an order restricting his discharge.

The power of a court of quarter sessions to make a hospital order, with or without an order restricting discharge, in the case of a person convicted before that court of an offence may, in the like circumstances and subject to the like conditions, be exercised by such a court in the case of a person committed to the court under section five of the Vagrancy Act, 1824 (which provides for the committal to quarter sessions of persons being incorrigible rogues within the meaning of that section).

Where an offender is committed under subsection (1) of section sixty-seven'of this Act and the magistrates' court by which he is committed is satisfied that arrangements have been made for the admission of the offender to a hospital in the event of an order being made under this section, the court may, instead of committing him in custody, by order direct him to be admitted to that hospital, specifying it, and to be detained there until the case is disposed of by quarter sessions, and may give such directions as it thinks fit for his production from the hospital to attend the court of quarter sessions by which his case is to be dealt with.

Subsection (1) of section sixty-three and section sixty-four of this Act shall apply in relation to an order under this section as they apply in relation to a hospital order, but as if references to the period of twenty-eight days mentioned in the said subsection (1) were omitted; and subject as aforesaid an order under this section shall, until the offender's ease is disposed of by quarter sessions, have the like effect as a hospital order together with an order restricting his discharge, made without limitation of time.

Where an order has been made under this section in respect of an offender, the notice of the date on which the case will be dealt with required by subsection (2) of section twenty-nine of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948, to be given by the clerk of the peace to the governor of the prison or remand centre shall instead be given to the managers of the hospital in which he is detained.

Where an order restricting discharge is made by a court of quarter sessions in respect of a person committed under section twenty-nine of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, under section five of the Vagrancy Act, 1824, or under section sixty-seven of this Act, that person may appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal against the order in like manner as against an order made on his conviction on indictment, and the provisions of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, shall apply accordingly.

On any appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal against an order restricting the discharge of an offender (including an appeal under subsection (1) of this section) the court shall have the like powers under subsection (3) of section four of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, as if the appeal were an appeal against the hospital order in respect of him as well as against the order restricting his discharge.

On any appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal by an offender against a hospital order or guardianship order, the court shall have the like powers under subsection (3) of the said section four as if the appeal were an appeal against any further order made by the court which made the hospital order or guardianship order, as well as against the hospital order or guardianship order.

Where on the trial of an information charging a person with an offence a magistrates' court makes a hospital order or guardianship order in respect of him without convicting him, he shall have the like right of appeal against the order as if it had been made on his conviction; and on any such appeal quarter sessions shall have the like powers as if the appeal had been against both conviction and sentence.

Where a juvenile court, on being satisfied that a child or young person brought before the court is in need of care or protection or that his parent or guardian is unable to control him, makes such an order as aforesaid, the child or young person may appeal to quarter sessions against the order.

An appeal by a child or young person with respect to whom any such order has been made, whether the appeal is against the order or against the finding upon which the order was made, may be brought by him or by his parent or guardian on his behalf.

Section two of the Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act, 1933 (which relates to legal aid) shall with the necessary modifications apply in relation to an appeal against a hospital order or guardianship order made by a magistrates' court (whether or not brought under this section) as it applies in relation to an appeal against sentence.

Where under any enactment to which this subsection applies any person is ordered to be kept in custody during Her Majesty's pleasure, that person shall, until detained in pursuance of any directions under subsection (2) of this section, be detained in such place of safety as the court may order, and the order shall be sufficient authority for his conveyance to that place.

The Secretary of State may by warrant direct that any person who, by virtue of any enactment to which this subsection applies, is required to be kept in custody during Her Majesty's pleasure or until the directions of Her Majesty are known shall be detained in such hospital (not being a mental nursing home) as may be specified in the warrant and, where that person is not already detained in the hospital, give directions for his removal there.

The enactments to which subsection (1) of this section applies are section two of the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1800, section two of the Trial of Lunatics Act, 1883, and subsection (4) of section five of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907; and the enactments to which subsection (2) of this section applies are the aforementioned enactments and subsection (4) of section six of the Courts-Martial (Appeals) Act, 1951, section one hundred and sixteen of the Army Act, 1955, section one hundred and sixteen of the Air Force Act, 1955, and section sixty-three of the Naval Discipline Act, 1957.

A direction under this section in respect of any person shall have the like effect as a hospital order together with an order restricting his discharge, made without limitation of time; and where such a direction is given in respect of a person while he is in the hospital, he shall be deemed to be admitted in pursuance of, and on the date of, the direction.

Where the Secretary of State is notified by the responsible medical officer that a person detained in a hospital, being a person ordered under section two of the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1800, to be kept in custody, no longer requires treatment for mental disorder, the Secretary of State may remit that person to prison, or to a remand centre provided under section forty-three of the Prison Act, 1952, for trial at the next quarter sessions or, as the case may be, assizes for the place where, but for the order, he would have been tried, and on his arrival at the prison or remand centre the direction under this section shall cease to have effect.

A direction under this section (in this Act referred to as a transfer direction) shall cease to have effect at the expiration of the period of fourteen days beginning with the date on which it is given unless within that period the person with respect to whom it was given has been received into the hospital specified therein.

A transfer direction with respect to any person shall have the like effect as a hospital order made in his case.

Of the medical practitioners whose reports are taken into account under subsection (1) of this section, at least one shall be a practitioner approved for the purposes of section twenty-eight of this Act by a local health authority as having special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders.

A transfer direction shall specify the form or forms of mental disorder referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section from which, upon the reports taken into account under that subsection, the patient is found by the Secretary of State to be suffering; and no such direction shall be given unless the patient is described in each of those reports as suffering from the same one of those forms, whether or not he is also described in either of them as suffering from another of those forms.

If in the case of a person to whom this section applies the Secretary of State is satisfied by the like reports as are required for the purposes of the last foregoing section that that person is suffering from mental illness or severe subnormality of a nature or degree which warrants the detention of the patient in a hospital for medical treatment, the Secretary of State shall have the like power of giving a transfer direction in respect of him under that section as if he were serving a sentence of imprisonment.

Subsections (2) to (5) of the last foregoing section shall apply for the purposes of this section and of any transfer direction given by virtue of this section as they apply for the purposes of that section and of any transfer direction thereunder.

Where a transfer direction is given in respect of any person, the Secretary of State, if he thinks fit, may by warrant further direct that that person shall be subject to the special restrictions set out in section sixty-five of this Act; and where the Secretary of State gives a transfer direction in respect of any such person as is described in paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (2) of the last foregoing section, he shall also give a direction under this section applying the said restrictions to him.

A direction under this section (in this Act referred to as a direction restricting discharge) shall have the like effect as an order restricting the discharge of the patient made under the said section sixty-five.

A direction restricting the discharge of a person serving a sentence of imprisonment (including an order for detention in a remand home under section sixty-nine of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933), shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the sentence.

Subject to the next following subsection, references in this section to the expiration of a person's sentence are references to the expiration of the period during which he would have been liable to be detained in a prison or other institution if the transfer direction had not been given.

For the purposes of subsection (2) of section forty-nine of the Prison Act, 1952 (which provides for discounting from the sentence of certain prisoners periods while they are unlawfully at large) a patient who, having been transferred in pursuance of a transfer direction from any such institution as is referred to in that subsection, is at large in circumstances in which he is liable to be taken into custody under any provision of this Act, shall be treated as unlawfully at large and absent from that institution.

Any transfer direction given in respect of any such person as is described in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (2) of section seventy-three of this Act shall cease to have effect when his case is disposed of by the court to which he was committed or by which he was remanded, as the case may be, but without prejudice to any power of that court to make a hospital order or other order under this Part of this Act in his case.

A hospital order may be made in respect of a person under paragraph (b) of the last foregoing subsection if the court is satisfied, on the oral evidence of at least two medical practitioners (complying with subsection (1) of section sixty-two of this Act), that that person is suffering from mental illness or severe subnormality of a nature or degree which warrants the detention of the patient in a hospital for medical treatment, and is of opinion, after considering any depositions or other documents required to be sent to the proper officer of the court, that it is proper to make such an order.

Where a person committed to quarter sessions to be dealt with under section sixty-seven of this Act is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of an order under section sixty-eight of this Act, paragraph (b) of subsection (2) and subsection (3) of this section shall apply as if he were a person subject to a transfer direction.

A transfer direction given in respect of a person remanded in custody by a magistrates' court shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period of remand unless, upon his being brought before the magistrates' court, he is committed in custody for trial at assizes or quarter sessions.

Where, on the expiration of the period of remand of any such person, he is committed in custody for trial as aforesaid, section seventy-six of this Act shall apply as if the transfer direction given in his case were a direction given in respect of a person so committed.

Where a transfer direction has been given in respect of a person remanded as aforesaid, the power of further remanding him under section one hundred and five of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952, may be exercised by the court without his being brought before the court; and if the court further remands such a person in custody (whether or not he is brought before the court) the period of remand shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed not to have expired.

Any transfer direction given in respect of a civil prisoner shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period during which he would, but for his removal to hospital, be liable to be detained in prison.

Where a transfer direction given in respect of any person ceases to have effect by virtue of this section, he shall continue to be liable to be detained in the hospital in which he was detained under that direction as if he had been admitted thereto, on the date on which the direction ceased to have effect, in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment made under Part IV of this Act, and the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly.

A direction shall not be given under this section placing a person under the guardianship of a local health authority or other person unless the Secretary of State is satisfied that that authority or person is willing to receive that person into guardianship.

A direction under this section with respect to any person shall have the like effect as a guardianship order made in his case.

Any reference in this Part of this Act to an offence punishable on summary conviction with imprisonment shall be construed without regard to any prohibition or restriction imposed by or under any enactment on the imprisonment of young offenders.

Where a patient who is liable to be detained in a hospital in pursuance of an order or direction under this Part of this Act is treated by virtue of any provision of this Part of this Act as if he had been admitted to the hospital in pursuance of a subsequent order or direction under this Part of this Act or a subsequent application for admission for treatment under Part IV thereof, he shall be treated as if the subsequent order, direction or application had described him as suffering from the form or forms of mental disorder specified in the earlier order or direction or, where he is treated as if he had been so admitted by virtue of a direction under subsection (1) of section sixty-six of this Act, such form of mental disorder as may be specified in the direction under that subsection.

In the following provisions of this Part of this Act, that is to say—

• subsections (2) to (5) of section sixty-three ;

• subsections (3) to (5) of section sixty-five ; and

• section sixty-six,

any reference to a hospital order, a guardianship order or an order restricting the discharge of a patient subject to a hospital order shall be construed as including a reference to any order or direction under this Part of this Act having the like effect as the first-mentioned order; and the exceptions and modifications set out in the Third Schedule to this Act in respect of the provisions of Part IV of this Act described in that Schedule accordingly include those which are consequential on the provisions of this subsection.

Subsection (2) of section fifty-nine of this Act shall apply for the purposes of this Part of this Act as it applies for the purposes of Part IV of this Act.

References in this Part of this Act to a court of quarter sessions include references to an appeal committee of quarter sessions.

References in this Part of this Act to persons serving a sentence of imprisonment shall be construed in accordance with subsection (6) of section seventy-two of this Act.

Section ninety-nine of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933 (which relates to the presumption and determination of age) shall apply for the purposes of this Part of this Act as it applies for the purposes of that Act.

If it appears to the Secretary of State, in the case of a patient who is for the time being liable to be detained by virtue of an order or direction under Part V of this Act, not being a patient to whom section eighty-one of this Act applies, that it is in the patient's interests to remove him to Scotland and that arrangements have been made for him in accordance with the following provisions of this section, the Secretary of State may by warrant authorise the removal of the patient to Scotland, and may give any necessary directions for his conveyance to his destination.

Where the patient is liable to be detained by virtue of a hospital order and an order restricting his discharge is in force, arrangements may be made for his reception into a State Mental Hospital within the meaning of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, 1949, or a mental hospital, asylum or house where persons of unsound mind may be detained in pursuance of an order under section fourteen of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1862, or for placing him in a State institution within the meaning of section twenty-eight of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1913.

Where the patient is liable to be detained by virtue of a transfer direction and a direction restricting his discharge is in force, arrangements may be made for his reception into a hospital eligible to receive patients under section six of the Criminal and Dangerous Lunatics (Scotland) Amendment Act, 1871, or under subsection (1) of section four of the Criminal Lunatics (Scotland) Act, 1935, or for placing him in an institution for defectives within the meaning of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1913.

Where the patient is liable to be detained in a hospital by virtue of a direction under section seventy-one of this Act, arrangements may be made for his reception into a State Mental Hospital within the meaning of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, 1949, or a mental hospital, asylum or house where persons of unsound mind may be detained in pursuance of an order under section fourteen of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1862.

Where a patient is removed in pursuance of such arrangements as are mentioned in subsection (4) of the said section eighty-two, the patient shall be treated as if he had been ordered by a court in Scotland to be kept in strict custody until Her Majesty's pleasure shall be known in pursuance of section eighty-seven or section eighty-eight of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1857, and as if an order for his safe custody in the place of reception had been made on behalf of Her Majesty under the said section eighty-seven or the said section eighty-eight.

In subsection (2) of section sixty-four of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, 1949 (which provides for the removal of state mental patients from mental hospitals in Scotland to mental hospitals in England and Wales) the reference to a mental hospital in England shall be construed as a reference to any hospital within the meaning of this Act,

Where a person is removed under this section to Northern Ireland, and is received in pursuance of the arrangements into a mental hospital, he shall, on his reception, be treated for all purposes as having been so received in pursuance of a judicial order made under Part II of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland), 1948, on the date on which he is so received.

Where a person is removed under this section to Northern Ireland, and is received in pursuance of the arrangements into an institution within the meaning of the said Act of 1948, or is placed under the guardianship of the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority, he shall, on being so received or placed, be treated for all purposes as if he had been so received or placed in pursuance of a judicial order made under Part III of that Act on the date on which he is so received or placed.

References in this section to the continuance of the order restricting the discharge of a patient are references to the time for which that order would have continued in force apart from removal of the patient under this section.

Where a patient removed under this section is received into a hospital in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid, this Act shall apply to him as if he had been admitted to the hospital in pursuance of an application for admission for treatment under Part IV of this Act, and had been so admitted on the date on which he is so received.

Where a patient so removed is received into guardianship in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid, this Act shall apply to him as if he had been received into guardianship in pursuance of a guardianship application under the said Part IV accepted on the date on which he is so received.

If it appears to the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, in the case of a patient being a criminal lunatic within the meaning of this section, that it is in the patient's interests to remove him to England and Wales, and that arrangements have been made for his admission to a hospital there, the Ministry may authorise his removal to England and Wales, and may give any necessary directions for his conveyance to his destination.

In this section " criminal lunatic" means a criminal lunatic within the meaning of the Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1901, or a person detained in a mental hospital or institution within the meaning of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland), 1948, in pursuance of an order made by the Governor of Northern Ireland or the Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland under section thirty-seven of that Act, or of directions given by the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland under section sixteen of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953.

The Secretary of State may by warrant direct that any offender found by a court in any of the Channel Islands or in the Isle of Man to be insane or to have been insane at the time of the alleged offence, and ordered to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure, be removed to a hospital in England and Wales.

A patient removed under this section shall, on his reception into the hospital in England and Wales, be treated as if he had been removed to that hospital in pursuance of a direction under section seventy-one of this Act.

The Secretary bf State may by warrant direct that any patient removed under this section from any of the Channel Islands or from the Isle of Man be returned to the Island from which he was so removed, there to be dealt with according to law in all respects as if he had not been removed under this section.

Where a lunatic, defective, or state mental patient liable to detention under the Lunacy (Scotland) Acts, 1857 to 1913, the Mental Deficiency (Scotland) Acts, 1913 and 1940, the Criminal Lunatics (Scotland) Act, 1935, or the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, 1949, in an institution to which this section applies is absent from the institution without leave, he may, not later than the expiration of any period within which he might be retaken in Scotland under the said enactments, be retaken in England or Wales by a mental welfare officer, by any constable or by any person for the time being authorised by or by virtue of any such enactment to apprehend him without warrant and may be returned to that institution by any person so authorised.

The institutions to which this section applies are mental hospitals, institutions for mental defectives and State Mental Hospitals within the meaning of the enactments specified in the foregoing subsection, and private asylums licensed thereunder.

Any person who, under section sixty-three of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland), 1948 (which provides for the retaking of patients absent without leave), is liable to be retaken in Northern Ireland may, within the period within which he might be so retaken, be taken into custody in England or Wales by a mental welfare officer, by any constable or by any person for the time being authorised by or by virtue of that section to retake him, and may be returned by any person so authorised to any hospital, institution or place to which he could lawfully be returned if retaken under that enactment.

Any person being a criminal lunatic within the meaning of section eighty-eight of this Act who is unlawfully at large in England or Wales may be taken into custody in England or Wales by a mental welfare officer, by any constable or by any person authorised by subsection (1) of section thirty-eight of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953, to arrest him without warrant, and may be returned by any person so authorised to the place in which he is required by the law in force in Northern Ireland to be detained.

Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who, under section forty or section one hundred and forty of this Act or under the said section forty as applied by section forty-six of this Act, may be taken into custody in England and Wales may be taken into custody in, and returned to England and Wales from, any other part of the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

For the purposes of the enactments referred to in subsection (1) of this section, in their application by virtue of this section to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, the expression " constable " includes a Scottish' constable, an officer or constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, a member of the police in Jersey, an officer of police within the meaning of section forty-three of the Larceny (Guernsey) Law, 1958, or any corresponding law for the time being in force, or a constable in the Isle of Man, as the case may be.

This section shall not apply to any person who is subject to guardianship.

References in this Part of this Act to a hospital, being a hospital in England and Wales, shall be construed as references to a hospital within the meaning of Part IV of this Act.

Where a patient is treated by virtue of this Part of this Act as if he had been removed to a hospital in England and Wales in pursuance of a direction under Part V of this Act, that direction shall be deemed to have been given on the date of his reception into the hospital.

A patient removed to England and Wales under this Part of this Act or under subsection (2) of section sixty-four of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, 1949, shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as suffering from such form of mental disorder as may be recorded in his case in pursuance of regulations made by virtue of section ninety-four of this Act, and references in this Act to the form or forms of mental disorder specified in the relevant application, order or direction shall be construed as including references to the form or forms of mental disorder so recorded.

Where, under any provision of this Act, an application to a Mental Health Review Tribunal is authorised to be made by or in respect of a patient, the application shall be made by notice in writing addressed to the tribunal for the area in which the hospital or nursing home in which the-patient is detained is situated or in which the patient, is residing under guardianship, as the case may be.

Except in such cases and at such times as are expressly provided by this Act, no application shall be made to a Mental Health Review Tribunal by or in respect of a patient; and where, under any provision of this Act, any person is authorised to make an application to such a tribunal within a specified period, not more than one such application shall be made by that person within that period.

Where application is made to a Mental Health Review Tribunal under any provision of this Act by or in respect of a patient and the tribunal do not direct that the patient be discharged, the tribunal may, if satisfied that the patient is suffering from a form of mental disorder other than the form specified in the relevant application, order or direction, direct that that application, order or direction be amended by substituting for the form of mental disorder specified therein such other form of mental disorder as appears to the tribunal to be appropriate.

This section applies in relation to any reference to a Mental Health Review Tribunal made by the Minister under section fifty-seven of this Act as it applies in relation to an application made to such tribunal by or in respect of a patient, but does not apply in relation to any reference by the Secretary of State under subsection (6) of section sixty-six of this Act.

The Lord Chancellor may make rules with respect to the making of applications to Mental Health Review Tribunals, and with respect to the proceedings of such tribunals and matters incidental to or consequential on such proceedings.

The foregoing provisions of this section apply in relation to references to Mental Health Review Tribunals as they apply in relation to applications to such tribunals by or in respect of patients.

Rules under this section may be so framed as to apply to all applications or references or to applications or references of any specified class and may make different provision in relation to different cases.

A Mental Health Review Tribunal may, and if so required by the High Court shall, state in the form of a special case for determination by the High Court any question of law which may arise before them.

The Arbitration Act, 1950, shall not apply to any proceedings before a Mental Health Review Tribunal except so far as any provisions of that Act may be applied, with or without modifications, by rules made under this section.

Any person who wilfully makes a false entry or statement in any application, recommendation, report, record or other document required or authorised to be made for any of the purposes of this Act or, with intent to deceive, makes use of any such entry or statement which he knows to be false, shall be guilty of an offence.

In this section " forge " has the same meaning as in the Forgery Act, 1913.

It shall be an offence for any individual to ill-treat or wilfully neglect a mentally disordered patient who is for the time being subject to his guardianship under this Act or otherwise in his custody or care (whether by virtue of any legal or moral obligation or otherwise).

No proceedings shall be instituted for an offence under this section except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

An order under section thirty-eight of the said Act made on conviction of an offence against a girl under the age of twenty-one who is a defective within the meaning of that Act may, so far as it has effect for any of the purposes of this Act, be rescinded under that section either before or after the girl has attained that age.

It shall not be an offence under this section for a man to have sexual intercourse with a woman if he does not know and has no reason to suspect her to be a mentally disordered patient.

Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

No proceedings shall be instituted for an offence under this section except by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

This section shall be construed as one with the Sexual Offences Act, 1956; and section forty-seven of that Act (which relates to the proof of exceptions) shall apply to the exception mentioned in this section.

Any person who knowingly harbours a patient who is absent without leave or is otherwise at large and liable to be retaken under this Act, or gives him any assistance with intent to prevent, hinder or interfere with his being taken into custody or returned to the hospital or other place where he ought to be, shall be guilty of an offence.

Any person who refuses to allow the inspection of any premises, or without reasonable cause refuses to allow the visiting, interviewing or examination of any person by a person authorised in that behalf by or under this Act or to produce for the inspection of any person so authorised any document or record the production of which is duly required by him, or otherwise obstructs any such person in the exercise of his functions, shall be guilty of an offence.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing subsection, any person who insists on being present when requested to withdraw by a person authorised as aforesaid to interview or examine a person in private, shall be guilty of an offence.

Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to both.

A local health authority may institute proceedings for any offence under this Part of this Act, but without prejudice to any provision of this Part of this Act requiring the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for the institution of such proceedings.

In relation to an offence under section one hundred and thirty of this Act in connection with the inspection of any premises, or the visiting, interviewing or examination of any patient, by a person authorised in that behalf by a registration authority within the meaning of Part III of this Act, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect as if the reference to a local health authority included a reference to that authority.

The Minister may pay to persons who are receiving treatment as in-patients (whether liable to be detained or not) in special hospitals or other hospitals, being hospitals wholly or mainly used for the treatment of persons suffering from mental disorder, such amounts as he thinks fit in respect of their occasional personal expenses where it appears to him that they would otherwise be without resources to meet those expenses.

For the purposes of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the making of payments under this section to persons for whom hospital and specialist services are provided under Part II of that Act shall be treated as included among those services.

Section thirty-six of this Act shall apply in relation to any patient who is receiving treatment for mental disorder in a hospital or mental nursing home, having been admitted for that purpose but not being liable to be detained therein, as it applies in relation to a patient detained in a hospital under Part IV of this Act.

In relation to any patient to whom it applies by virtue of this section, the said section thirty-six shall have effect as if for any reference to the responsible medical officer there were substituted a reference to the medical practitioner in charge of the treatment of the patient.

A patient who is removed to a place of safety in the execution of a warrant issued under this section may be detained there for a period not exceeding seventy-two hours.

It shall not be necessary in any information or warrant under subsection (1) of this section to name the patient concerned.

In this section " place of safety" means residential accommodation provided by a local authority under Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1946, or under Part III of the National Assistance Act, 1948, a hospital as defined by this Act, a police station, a mental nursing home or residential home for mentally disordered persons or any other suitable place the occupier of which is willing temporarily to receive the patient.

If a constable finds in a place to which the public have access a person who appears to him to be suffering from mental disorder and to be in immediate need of care or control, the constable may, if he thinks it necessary to do so in the interests of that person or for the protection of other persons, remove that person to a place of safety within the meaning of the last foregoing section.

A person removed to a place of safety under this section may be detained there for a period not exceeding seventy-two hours for the purpose of enabling him to be examined by a medical practitioner and to be interviewed by a mental welfare officer and of making any necessary arrangements for his treatment or care.

The following provisions shall have effect in substitution for the provisions of the Lunacy (Vacating of Seats) Act, 1886.

Where a member of the House of Commons is authorised to be detained on the ground (however formulated) that he is suffering from mental illness, it shall be the duty of the court, authority or person on whose order or application, and of any medical practitioner upon whose recommendation or certificate, the detention was authorised, and of the person in charge of the hospital or other place in which the member is authorised to be detained, to notify the Speaker of the House of Commons that the detention has been authorised.

If the report is to the effect that the member is suffering from mental illness and authorised to be detained as aforesaid, the Speaker shall at the expiration of six months from the date of the report, if the House is then sitting, and otherwise as soon as may be after the House next sits, again cause the member to be visited and examined by two such medical practitioners as aforesaid, and the medical practitioners shall report as aforesaid.

If the second report is that the member is suffering from mental illness and authorised to be detained as aforesaid, the Speaker shall forthwith lay both reports before the House of Commons, and thereupon the seat of the member shall become vacant.

This section shall apply in relation to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland as it applies in relation to the House of Commons and references therein to the Speaker shall be construed accordingly.

Where a periodic payment falls to be made to any person by way of pay or pension or otherwise in connection with the service or employment of that or any other person, and the payment falls to be made directly out of moneys provided by Parliament or the Consolidated Fund, or other moneys administered by or under the control or supervision of a Government department, the authority by whom the sum in question is payable, if satisfied after considering medical evidence that the person to whom it is payable (hereinafter referred to as " the patient") is incapable by reason of mental disorder of managing and administering his property and affairs, may, instead of paying the-sum to the patient, apply it in accordance with the next following subsection.

In this section " Government department" does not include a department of the Government of Northern Ireland.

Any person required or authorised by or by virtue of this Act to be conveyed to any place or to be kept in custody or detained in a place of safety or at any place to which he is taken under subsection (5) of section sixty-six of this Act shall, while being so conveyed, detained or kept, as the case may be, be deemed to be in legal custody.

A constable or any other person required or authorised by or by virtue of this Act to take any person into custody, or to convey or detain any person shall, for the purposes of taking him into custody or conveying or detaining him, have all the powers, authorities, protection and privileges which a constable has within the area for which he acts as constable.

In this section "convey" includes any other expression denoting removal from one place to another.

A person who escapes as aforesaid when liable to be detained or subject to guardianship as mentioned in paragraph (b) of the foregoing subsection (not being a person subject to an order under Part V of this Act restricting his discharge or an order or direction having the like effect as such an order) shall not be retaken under this section after the expiration of the period within which he could be retaken under section forty of this Act if he had absented himself without leave on the day of the escape; and subsection (3) of the said section forty shall apply with the necessary modifications accordingly.

A person who escapes while being taken to or detained in a place of safety under section one hundred and thirty-five or section one hundred and thirty-six of this Act shall not be retaken under this section after the expiration of the period of seventy-two hours beginning with the time when he escapes or the period during which he is liable to be so detained, whichever expires first.

In computing for the purposes of sections sixty-three and sixty-four of this Act the period of twenty-eight days therein, mentioned, no account shall be taken of any time during which the patient is at large and liable to be retaken by virtue of this section.

Section forty-five of this Act shall, with any necessary modifications, apply in relation to a patient who is at large and liable to be retaken by virtue of this section as it applies in relation to a patient who is absent without leave within the meaning of section forty of this Act, and references therein to the said section forty shall be construed accordingly.

No person shall be liable, whether on the ground of want of jurisdiction or on any other ground, to any civil or criminal proceedings to which he would have been liable apart from this section in respect of any act purporting to be done in pursuance of this Act or any regulations or rules thereunder, or in, or in pursuance of anything done in, the discharge of functions conferred by any other enactment on the authority having jurisdiction under Part VIII of this Act, unless the act was done in bad faith or without reasonable care.

No civil or criminal proceedings shall be brought against any person in any court in respect of any such act without the leave of the High Court, and the High Court shall not give leave under this section unless satisfied that there is substantial ground for the contention that the person to be proceeded against has acted in bad faith or without reasonable care.

This section does not apply to proceedings for an offence under this Act, being proceedings which, under any provision of this Act, can be instituted only by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In this section, references to the High Court shall be construed, in relation to Northern Ireland, as references to a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland,

Where the Minister is of opinion, on complaint or otherwise, that a local health authority have failed to carry out functions conferred or imposed on the authority by or under this Act or have in carrying out those functions failed to comply with any regulations relating thereto, he may after such inquiry as he thinks fit make an order declaring the authority to be in default.

Subsections (3) to (5) of section fifty-seven of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to orders declaring, among others, a local authority to be in default under that Act) shall apply in relation to an order under this section as they apply in relation to an order under that section.

Any sums required for the payment of fees and expenses to medical practitioners acting in relation to a member of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland under section one hundred and thirty-seven of this Act shall be defrayed in such manner as may be provided by the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Any power of the Minister or the Lord Chancellor to make regulations, orders or rules under this Act shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

Any Order in Council under this Act and any statutory instrument containing regulations or rules made under this Act shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

Any reference in this Act to any other enactment is a reference thereto as amended, and includes a reference thereto as extended or applied, by or under any other enactment, including this Act.

Without prejudice to the last foregoing subsection, any reference in this Act to an enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, or to an enactment which that Parliament has power to amend, shall be construed, in relation to Northern Ireland, as a reference to that enactment as amended by any Act of that Parliament, whether passed before or after this Act.

In relation to a person who is liable to be detained or subject to guardianship by virtue of an order or direction under Part V of this Act, any reference in this Act to any enactment contained in Part IV of this Act shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as it applies to that person by virtue of the said Part V.

For the purposes of this Act a person shall be deemed not to have attained the age of sixteen, twenty-one or twenty-five years, as the case may be, until the commencement of the sixteenth, twenty-first or twenty-fifth anniversary of the date of his birth.

The transitional provisions set out in the Sixth Schedule to this Act shall have effect for the purposes of the transition to the provisions of this Act from the law in force before the commencement of this Act.

The enactments described in the first column of the Seventh Schedule to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments specified in the second column of that Schedule, being minor amendments and amendments consequential on the foregoing provisions of this Act.

The enactments described in the Eighth Schedule to this Act (which include certain obsolete enactments relating to persons of unsound mind) are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

Her Majesty may by Order in Council repeal or amend any local enactment so far as appears to Her Majesty to be necessary in consequence of any provision of this Act.

The repeal by this Act of the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, shall not affect any amendment effected by section twenty of that Act in any enactment not repealed by this Act.

The repeal by this Act of the provisions of the Lunacy Act, 1890, and of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, relating to the superannuation of officers or employees shall not affect any arrangements for the payment of allowances or other benefits made in accordance with those provisions and in force at the commencement of this Act.

This Act (except this section) shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may by order appoint.

Different dates may be appointed by order under this section for different purposes of this Act; and any reference in any provision of this Act to the commencement of this Act shall, unless otherwise provided by any such order, be construed as a reference to the date on which that provision comes into operation.

This Act may be cited as the Mental Health Act, 1959.

Subsection (3) of section eighty of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which provides for the extension of that Act to the Isles of Scilly) shall have effect as if the references to that Act included references to this Act.