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MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 58

58.(1) If in the case of a person serving a sentence of imprisonment,
the Minister is satisfied by reports from at least two medical practitioners
(complying with the provisions of this section)

(a)that that person is suffering from mental illness or requires special care;
and

(b)that the mental disorder from which the person is suffering is of a nature
or degree which warrants his detention in hospital for medical treatment;

(2) A direction under this section (in this Act referred to as a "transfer
direction") shall cease to have effect at the expiration of the period of
fourteen days beginning with the date on which it is given, unless within that
period the person with respect to whom it was given has been received into
hospital.

(3) A transfer direction with respect to any person shall have the like effect
as a hospital order made in his case.

(4) Of the medical practitioners whose reports are taken into account under
sub-section (1), at least one shall be a practitioner appointed for the
purposes of section nineteen....

(5) A transfer direction shall describe the patient as being mentally ill or
as requiring special care, or in both those ways; and a transfer direction
shall not be given unless each of the reports taken into account under
sub-section (1) (whether or not they also describe the patient in both those
ways) describes the patient as being mentally ill or, as the case may be, as a
person requiring special care.

(6) References in this section to a person serving a sentence of imprisonment
include references

(a)to a person detained in pursuance of any sentence or order for detention
made by a court in criminal proceedings, or made or having effect as if made
in any proceedings under the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern
Ireland), [1968] (other than an order under any enactment to which section
fifty-seven of this Act applies, or an order for detention in a remand home
under [sub-section (1)(e) of section seventy-four] or in a place of safety
under [section one hundred or one hundred and one] of the said [Act of 1968]);

(b)to a person committed to custody for failure to comply with an order to
enter into recognizances to keep the peace or be of good behaviour; and

(c)to a person committed by a court to a prison within the meaning of the
Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953, in default of payment of any sum adjudged
to be paid on his conviction.

© 1961 Crown Copyright

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