Mental Health Act 1959

92 Patients absent from Northern Irish institutions

(1) 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.

(2) 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.