Mental Health Act 1959

76 Further provisions as to persons committed for trial or sentence, etc.

(1) Any transfer direction given in respect of any such person as is described in paragraphs (a) to (c) of subsection (2) of section seventy-three of this Act shall cease to have effect when his case is disposed of by the court to which he was committed or by which he was remanded, as the case may be, but without prejudice to any power of that court to make a hospital order or other order under this Part of this Act in his case.

(2) Where a transfer direction has been given in respect of any such person as aforesaid, then—

(a) if the Secretary of State is notified by the (responsible medical officer at any time before that person is brought before the court to which he was committed or by which he was remanded that he no longer requires treatment for mental disorder, the Secretary of State may by warrant direct that he be remitted to any place where he might have been detained if he had not been removed to hospital, there to be dealt with as if he had not been so removed, and on his arrival at the place to which he is so remitted the transfer direction shall cease to have effect;

(b) if (no direction having been given under paragraph (a) of this subsection) it appears to that court that it is impracticable or inappropriate to bring that person before the court and the conditions set out in the next following subsection are satisfied, the court may make a hospital order (with or without an order restricting discharge) in his case in his absence and, in the case of a person committed for trial, without convicting him.

(3) A hospital order may be made in respect of a person under paragraph (b) of the last foregoing subsection if the court is satisfied, on the oral evidence of at least two medical practitioners (complying with subsection (1) of section sixty-two of this Act), that that person is suffering from mental illness or severe subnormality of a nature or degree which warrants the detention of the patient in a hospital for medical treatment, and is of opinion, after considering any depositions or other documents required to be sent to the proper officer of the court, that it is proper to make such an order.

(4) Where a person committed to quarter sessions to be dealt with under section sixty-seven of this Act is admitted to a hospital in pursuance of an order under section sixty-eight of this Act, paragraph (b) of subsection (2) and subsection (3) of this section shall apply as if he were a person subject to a transfer direction.