Immigration Act 1971

30 Return of mental patients

(1) In the following enactments (which provide in relation to England, Wales and Northern Ireland and in relation to Scotland, respectively, for aliens receiving treatment for mental illness as in-patients to be removed, where proper arrangements have been made, to a country or territory outside the United Kingdom and Islands), that is to say,—

(a) section 90 of the [1959 c. 72.] Mental Health Act 1959 ; and

(b) section 82 of the [1960 c. 61.] Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1960;

there shall in each case be substituted for the words " any patient being an alien " the words "any patient who is not patrial within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 and ".

(2) Under section 90 of the Mental Health Act 1959 (as under section 82 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1960) the Secretary of State shall only authorise the removal of a patient if it appears to him to be in the interests of the patient; and accordingly in section 90 after the words " and for his care or treatment there " there shall be inserted the words " and that it is in the interests of the patient to remove him ".