(1)Schedule 4 to the Representation of the People Act 2000 (c. 2) (absent voting in Great Britain) is amended as follows.
(2)After paragraph 2(5) insert—
“(5A)Nothing in the preceding provisions of this paragraph applies to a person to whom section 7 of the 1983 Act (mental patients who are not detained offenders) applies and who is liable, by virtue of any enactment, to be detained in the mental hospital in question, whether he is registered by virtue of that provision or not; and such a person may vote—
(a)in person (where he is granted permission to be absent from the hospital and voting in person does not breach any condition attached to that permission), or
(b)by post or by proxy (where he is entitled as an elector to vote by post or, as the case may be, by proxy at the election).”
(3)In paragraph 2(6), omit paragraph (a) and the “or” following it.
(4)This section does not apply to local government elections in Scotland (within the meaning of the 1983 Act).