Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003

Social circumstances reports

231 Social circumstances report: mental health officer’s duties

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, where a relevant event occurs in respect of a patient, the mental health officer shall, before the expiry of the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the event occurs—

(a) prepare in respect of the patient a social circumstances report; and

(b) send a copy of the report to—

(i) the patient’s responsible medical officer; and

(ii) the Commission.

(2) If in any case the mental health officer considers that a social circumstances report would serve little, or no, practical purpose, the mental health officer—

(a) need not comply with subsection (1) above; but

(b) shall, before the expiry of the period mentioned in that subsection—

(i) record the reasons for deciding that any such report would serve little, or no, practical purpose; and

(ii) send a statement of those reasons to the patient’s responsible medical officer and to the Commission.

(3) In this section, “social circumstances report” means a report setting out such information as may be prescribed by regulations.