Mental Health Act 1959

88 Removal to England and Wales of criminal patients

(1) If it appears to the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, in the case of a patient being a criminal lunatic within the meaning of this section, that it is in the patient's interests to remove him to England and Wales, and that arrangements have been made for his admission to a hospital there, the Ministry may authorise his removal to England and Wales, and may give any necessary directions for his conveyance to his destination.

(2) Where a patient removed under this section is received into a hospital in England and Wales in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid, then—

(a) if the patient is a person ordered to be kept in custody under section seventeen of the Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1821, or under section two of the Trial of Lunatics Act, 1883, he shall, on his reception into the hospital in . England and Wales, be treated as if he had been removed to that hospital in pursuance of a direction under section seventy-one of this Act;

(b) in any other case, the patient shall be treated, on his reception into the hospital in England and Wales, as if he had been removed to that hospital in pursuance of a transfer direction under Part V of this Act, and as if a direction restricting his discharge had been given under section seventy-four of this Act;

and in any such case the patient shall be treated as if the sentence or order by virtue of which he was detained before being removed under this section had been imposed or made by a court in England and Wales.

(3) In this section " criminal lunatic" means a criminal lunatic within the meaning of the Lunacy (Ireland) Act, 1901, or a person detained in a mental hospital or institution within the meaning of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland), 1948, in pursuance of an order made by the Governor of Northern Ireland or the Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland under section thirty-seven of that Act, or of directions given by the Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland under section sixteen of the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953.