Nominated persons
25Applications for admission or guardianship: role of nominated person
(1)
The Mental Health Act 1983 is amended as follows.
(2)
“(4)
Before an approved mental health professional makes an application for admission for treatment or a guardianship application in respect of a patient who appears to have a nominated person, the professional must consult that person.
(4A)
But the consultation requirement imposed by subsection (4) does not apply if it appears to the approved mental health professional that consultation—
(a)
is not reasonably practicable, or
(b)
would involve unreasonable delay.
(4B)
A patient’s nominated person may object to the making of an application for admission for treatment or the making of a guardianship application by an approved mental health professional by—
(a)
notifying the professional, or
(b)
notifying the local social services authority on whose behalf the professional is acting.
(4C)
Where a nominated person objects under subsection (4B) to the making of an application, the application may be made only if it is accompanied by a report certifying that, in the opinion of the approved mental health professional, the patient, if not admitted for treatment or received into guardianship, would be likely to act in a manner that is dangerous to other persons or to the patient.”
(3)
In section 20 (duration of authority)—
(a)
in subsection (5)—
(i)
the words from “one” to the end become paragraph (a), and
(ii)
“; and
(b)
if the patient appears to have a nominated person, the nominated person.”;
(b)
“(6A)
Before furnishing a report under subsection (6), the appropriate practitioner must, if the patient appears to have a nominated person, consult that person.”
(4)
“(ia)
in the cases mentioned in paragraphs (b) and (c) where the application was made despite an objection under section 11(4B), by the patient’s nominated person;”.