Local Government Act 1888

86 Adaptation of Lunatic Asylum Acts.

For the purpose of adapting the Acts relating to pauper lunatic asylums to the provisions of this Act, the following provisions shall have effect:—

(1) The accounts of the committee of visitors and of their officers shall, for the purposes of the provisions of this Act with respect to accounts of a county council and their officers, and the audit thereof, be deemed to be accounts of the council and officers.

(2) Nothing in this Act shall transfer to the county council or any members thereof the jurisdiction of quarter sessions or any justices in relation to the removal, reception, or detention of a lunatic into or in an asylum, or to making orders respecting the payment otherwise than out of the county fund of charges incurred on account of any pauper lunatic, or respecting any property of any such lunatic, or respecting his settlement or chargeability, or in relation to any appeal touching the said matters.

(3) Where at the passing of this Act the recorder or justices or council of a borough appoint members of the committee of visitors of any lunatic asylum, then—

(a) if the representatives of that borough on the county council are entitled to vote for the appointment by that council of visitors of that asylum, such recorder or justices or council shall cease to have power to appoint the said members; and

(b) if the representatives of the borough are not so entitled to vote, the said power of appointment by the recorder or justices shall be transferred to the council of the borough.

(4) Where at the passing of this Act a borough with a separate court of quarter sessions not being a county borough, but containing, according to the census of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, a population of ten thousand or upwards, contracts with the quarter sessions of the county in which the borough is situate for the reception of the lunatics of the borough in the asylum of the county, such borough shall, on the determination of such contract, cease to have power to build a lunatic asylum, and subject to the enactments providing for an additional charge for the maintenance of lunatics in cases where no contribution has been made towards the cost of building and furnishing an asylum, shall be liable to contribute to the county rate of the county in respect of such lunatic asylum in like manner as the rest of the county.

(5) Any asylum provided in whole or in part at the cost of a county shall for the purposes of this Act be included in the expression " county lunatic asylum."

(6) Where there is more than one county lunatic asylum, the county council may from time to time appoint one committee for the management and control of all the county lunatic asylums, and such committee shall be the committee of each asylum within the meaning of the Acts relating to pauper lunatic asylums, and shall from time to time appoint a subcommittee for each separate asylum, and may delegate to that sub-committee, such powers and duties as the committee from time to time think fit.

(7) The said committee may, subject to any directions given by the county council, provide that a uniform charge shall be made for the maintenance of lunatics in the several county asylums, and that for that purpose any surplus arising on the accounts of one asylum shall be applied to meet the deficit arising on the accounts of another asylum.

(8) The provisions of this Act with respect to the proceedings of committees of county councils shall apply to the proceedings of the committee of visitors for a lunatic asylum, and the chairman of such committee may be elected accordingly.