MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 53 Power of courts to restrict discharge from hospital.

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MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 53

Power of courts to restrict discharge from hospital.

53.(1) Where

(a)a court makes a hospital order in respect of any person; and

(b)it appears to the court, having regard to the nature of the offence, the
antecedents of the person and the risk of his committing further offences if
set at large, that it is necessary for the protection of the public to do so;

(2) 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 the
medical practitioner appointed for the purposes of section nineteen..., whose
evidence is taken into account by the court under paragraph (a) of sub-section
(1) of section forty-eight, has given evidence orally before the court.

(3) The special restrictions applicable to a patient in respect of whom an
order restricting discharge is in force are as follows, that is to say

(a)none of the provisions of Part II relating to the duration, renewal and
expiration of authority for the detention of patients shall apply, and
the patient shall continue to be liable to be detained by virtue of the
relevant hospital order until he is absolutely discharged under section
fifty-four;

(b)an application shall not be made to the Review Tribunal in respect of
the patient under section fifty-one or under any provision of Part II;

(c)the following powers shall be exercisable only with the consent of
the Minister of Home Affairs (in this Part referred to as "the Minister"),
that is to say

(i)power to grant leave of absence to the patient under section twenty-nine;

(ii)power to transfer the patient under section thirty-one;

(b)and if leave of absence is granted under section twenty-nine, the power to
recall the patient shall be vested in the Minister as well as in
the responsible medical officer;

(d)the power of the Minister to recall the patient under section twenty-nine,
and the power to take the patient into custody and return him under section
thirty, may be exercised at any time;

(4) A hospital order shall not cease to have effect under sub-section (7) of
section fifty-one if an order restricting the discharge of the patient is in
force at the material time.

(5) Where an order restricting the discharge of a patient ceases to have
effect while the relevant hospital order continues in force, section fifty-one
and the Second Schedule shall apply to the patient as if he had been admitted
to the hospital in which he is then liable to be detained 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.

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Northern Irish Legislation

MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 53