Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016

Effect of remand to hospital

166.—(1) Where a person is remanded under section 162—

(a) a constable or any other person directed to do so by the court must take the person to the hospital specified by the court;

(b) the managing authority of that hospital must—

(i) admit the person; and

(ii) subject to the following provisions of this section, detain him or her for the period of the remand; and

(c) any question whether the person may be given any treatment while detained in pursuance of the remand is (subject to section 243) to be determined in the same way as if the person were not so detained.

(2) The court which remanded the person may at any time terminate the remand if it appears to the court that it is appropriate to do so.

(3) A person remanded under section 162 may obtain at his or her own expense, from a medical practitioner chosen by the person, an independent report as to the person’s mental or physical condition and apply to the court on the basis of that report for the remand to be terminated under subsection (2).

(4) If a person remanded under section 162 absconds from the hospital, or while being taken to or from the hospital—

(a) the person may be arrested without warrant by any constable;

(b) after being arrested, the person must be brought as soon as practicable before the court that remanded him or her; and

(c) on the person’s being brought before it, the court may terminate the remand and deal with the person in any way in which it would have dealt with the person if the person had not been remanded under section 162.

(5) The power of further remanding a person under section 162 may be exercised by the court without the person’s being brought before the court if the person is represented by counsel, or a solicitor, who is given an opportunity of being heard.

(6) References in subsections (1) to (4) to a remand under section 162 include a further remand under that section; and subsection (1) applies in relation to the further remand to a hospital of a person who has been admitted to the hospital and is not brought before the court as if paragraphs (a) and (b)(i) were omitted.