(1)If in the case of a person of or over the age of fourteen years who is convicted by a magistrates' court of an offence punishable on summary conviction with imprisonment—
(a)the conditions which, under subsection (1) of section sixty of this Act, are required to be satisfied for the making of a hospital order are satisfied in respect of the offender; but
(b)it appears to the court, having regard to the nature of the offence, the antecedents of the offender and the risk of his committing further offences if set at large, that if a hospital order is made an order restricting his discharge should also be made,
the court may, instead of making a hospital order or dealing with him in any other manner, commit him in custody to quarter sessions to be dealt with in respect of the offence.
(2)Subsection (2) of section twenty-nine of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948 (which specifies the court of quarter sessions by which an offender committed to quarter sessions for sentence is to be dealt with) shall apply in relation to the committal of an offender under this section as it applies in relation to the committal of an offender for sentence under section twenty-nine of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952.
(3)Where an offender is committed to quarter sessions under this section, the court of quarter sessions shall inquire into the circumstances of the case and may—
(a)if that court would have power so to do under the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act upon the conviction of the offender before that court of such an offence as is described in subsection (1) of section sixty of this Act, make a hospital order in his case, with or without an order restricting his discharge;
(b)if the court does not make such an order, deal with the offender in any other manner in which the magistrates' court might have dealt with him;
and the Poor Prisoners Defence Act, 1930, shall apply as if the offender were committed for trial for an indictable offence, subject to the modifications specified in subsections (4) and (5) of section eighteen of the Legal Aid and Advice Act, 1949.
(4)The power of a magistrates' court under section twenty-nine of the Magistrates' Courts Act, 1952 (which enables such a court to commit an offender to quarter sessions where the court is of opinion that greater punishment should be inflicted for the offence than the court has power to inflict) shall also be exercisable by a magistrates' court where it is of opinion that greater punishment should be inflicted as aforesaid on the offender unless a hospital order is made in his case with an order restricting his discharge.
(5)The power of a court of quarter sessions to make a hospital order, with or without an order restricting discharge, in the case of a person convicted before that court of an offence may, in the like circumstances and subject to the like conditions, be exercised by such a court in the case of a person committed to the court under section five of the Vagrancy Act, 1824 (which provides for the committal to quarter sessions of persons being incorrigible rogues within the meaning of that section).