Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016

3.—(1) An application may not be made for authorisation of the detention of P in a hospital where the proposed detention could be authorised under Schedule 2 (short-term detention for examination etc).

(2) But sub-paragraph (1) does not apply if the application also requests authorisation of another measure or measures mentioned in paragraph 2(2).

(3) An application may be made in respect of a person who is under 16 but who will be 16 or over when the proposed measure would be carried out.

(4) An application may be made in respect of a measure or measures mentioned in paragraph 2(2) where the measure, or any of the measures, has already begun (for example, because it was begun in an emergency) and is proposed to be continued.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph 2(2)(b) it does not matter whether P is or is not already resident in the place (or, if the place is a hospital, an in-patient in the hospital) at the time when the detention is proposed.

(6) Regulations may provide that an application for authorisation of the detention of P in circumstances amounting to a deprivation of liberty in a particular place—

(a) may be made only if the place is of a prescribed description; or

(b) may not be made if the place is of a prescribed description.

(7) In this paragraph “application” means an application under this Schedule.