Mental Health Act 1959

Miscellaneous provisions

132Notification of hospitals having arrangements for reception of urgent cases

It shall be the duty of every Regional Hospital Board to give notice to every local health authority for an area wholly or partly comprised within the area of the Board specifying the hospital or hospitals administered by the Board in which arrangements are from time to time in force for the reception, in case of special urgency, of patients requiring treatment for mental disorder.

133Provision of pocket money for in-patients in hospital

(1)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.

(2)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.

(3)In the application of this section to Scotland—

(a)for any reference to the Minister there shall be substituted a reference to the Secretary of State;

(b)for the words from " special hospitals " to " mental disorder " there shall be substituted the words " institutions to which section ninety-one of this Act applies ";

(c)for the reference to the National Health Service Act, 1946, there shall be substituted a reference to the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947.

134Correspondence of patients not subject to detention

(1)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.

(2)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.

135Warrant to search for and remove patients

(1)If it appears to a justice of the peace, on information on oath laid by a mental welfare officer, that there is reasonable cause to suspect that a person believed to be suffering from mental disorder—

(a)has been, or is being, ill-treated, neglected or kept otherwise than under proper control, in any place within the jurisdiction of the justice, or

(b)being unable to care for himself, is living alone in any such place,

the justice may issue a warrant authorising any constable named therein to enter, if need be by force, any premises specified in the warrant in which that person is believed to be, and, if thought fit, to remove him to a place of safety with a view to the making of an application in respect of him under Part IV of this Act, or of other arrangements for his treatment or care.

(2)If it appears to a justice of the peace, on information on oath laid by any constable or other person who is authorised by or under this Act to take a patient to any place, or to take into custody or retake a patient who is liable under this Act to be so taken or retaken,—

(a)that there is reasonable cause to believe that the patient is to be found on premises within the jurisdiction of the justice; and

(b)that admission to the premises has been refused or that a refusal of such admission is apprehended,

the justice may issue a warrant authorising any constable named therein to enter the premises, if need be by force, and remove the patient.

(3)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.

(4)In the execution" of a warrant issued under subsection (1) of this section, the constable to whom it is addressed shall be accompanied by a mental welfare officer and by a medical practitioner, and in the execution of a warrant issued under subsection (2) of this section the constable to whom it is addressed may be accompanied—

(a)by a medical practitioner;

(b)by any person authorised by or under this Act to take or retake the patient.

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

(6)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.

136Mentally disordered persons found in public places

(1)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.

(2)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.

137Amendment of provisions as to members of Parliament

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

(2)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.

(3)Where the Speaker receives a notification under the foregoing subsection, or is notified by two members of the House of Commons that they are credibly informed that such an authorisation has been given, the Speaker shall cause the member to whom the notification relates to be visited and examined by two medical practitioners appointed as follows, that is to say—

(a)where the member is to be visited in England and Wales or in Northern Ireland, by the President of the Royal College of Physicians of London ;

(b)where the member is to be visited in Scotland, by the President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the President of the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, acting jointly,

being in either case practitioners appearing to the President or Presidents to have special experience in the diagnosis or treatment of mental disorders; and the medical practitioners so appointed shall report to the Speaker whether the member is suffering from mental illness and is authorised to be detained as such.

(4)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.

(5)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.

(6)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.

138Pay, pensions, etc., of mentally disordered persons

(1)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.

(2)The authority may pay the sum or such part thereof as they think fit to the institution or person having the care of the patient, to be applied for his benefit, and may pay the remainder (if any) or such part thereof as they think fit—

(a)to or for the benefit of persons who appear to the authority to be members of the patient's family or other persons for whom the patient might be expected to provide if he were not mentally disordered, or

(b)in reimbursement, with or without interest, of money applied by any person either in payment of the patient's debts (whether legally enforceable or not) or for the maintenance or other benefit of the patient or such persons as are mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.

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