Mental Health Act 1959

20 Special provisions as to registration of residential homes

(1) It shall be a condition of the registration of any person in respect of a residential home for mentally disordered persons that the number of persons kept at any one time in the home (excluding persons carrying on or employed in the home and their families) does not exceed such number as may be specified in the certificate of registration; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision, the registration may be effected subject to such conditions (to be specified in the certificate) as the registration authority consider appropriate for regulating the age, sex or other category of persons who may be received in the home.

(2) If any condition imposed by or under subsection (1) of this section is not complied with, the person carrying on the home shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding five pounds and in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds ; and without prejudice to the foregoing provision the power of the registration authority to cancel registration under subsection (4) of section thirty-seven of the National Assistance Act, 1948, shall include power to cancel the registration on the ground that any such condition has not been complied with.

(3) In relation to residential homes for mentally disordered persons, section forty of the National Assistance Act, 1948, shall have effect as if paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of that section (which enables the Minister to make regulations for purposes corresponding with subsection (1) of this section) were omitted.