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MENTAL HEALTH ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1961 - SECT 79

Procedure on applications to the Review Tribunal.

79.(1) The Lord Chief Justice may make rules with respect to the making of
applications to the Review Tribunal, and with respect to the proceedings of
the tribunal and matters incidental to or consequential on those proceedings.

(2) Rules made under this section may in particular make provision

(a)for enabling the Review Tribunal, the chairman thereof or any member
thereof appointed for the purpose by the chairman, to postpone the
consideration of any application by or in respect of a patient until the
expiration of such period (not exceeding twelve months) as may be specified in
the rules from the date on which an application by or in respect of the same
patient was last considered and determined by the Review Tribunal;

(b)for enabling the Review Tribunal to dispose of an application without any
formal hearing where such a hearing is not requested by the applicant or it
appears to the tribunal that such a hearing would be detrimental to the health
of the patient;

(c)for enabling the Review Tribunal to exclude members of the public from any
proceedings of the tribunal, or to prohibit the publication of reports of any
such proceedings or the names of any persons concerned in those proceedings;

(d)for regulating the circumstances in which, and the person by whom,
applicants and patients in respect of whom applications are made to
the Review Tribunal may, if not desiring to conduct their own case, be
represented for the purposes of those applications;

(e)for regulating the methods by which information relevant to an application
may be obtained by or furnished to the Review Tribunal, and in particular for
authorising the members of the tribunal, or any one or more than one of them,
to visit and interview in private any patient by or in respect of whom an
application has been made;

(f)for making available to any applicant, and to any patient in respect of
whom an application is made to the Review Tribunal, copies of any documents
obtained by or furnished to the tribunal in connection with the application,
and a statement of the substance of any oral information so obtained or
furnished except where the tribunal consider it undesirable in the interests
of the patient or for other special reasons;

(g)for requiring the Review Tribunal, if so requested in accordance with the
rules, to furnish such statements of the reasons for any decision given by the
tribunal as may be prescribed by the rules, subject to any provision made by
the rules for withholding such a statement from a patient or any person where
the tribunal consider that furnishing it would be undesirable in the interests
of the patient or for other special reasons;

(h)for conferring on the Review Tribunal such ancillary powers as the Lord
Chief Justice thinks necessary for the exercise of the tribunal's functions
under this Act.

(3) Sub-sections (1) and (2) shall apply in relation to references to
the Review Tribunal as they apply in relation to applications to the tribunal
by or in respect of patients.

(4) The Review Tribunal may, and if so required by the [Court of Appeal]
shall, state in the form of a special case for determination by the [Court of
Appeal] any question of law which may arise before them.

(5) The Arbitration Act (Northern Ireland), 1937, shall not apply to any
proceeding before the tribunal except so far as any provisions of that Act may
be applied, with or without modifications, by rules made under this section.

Special accommodation .

© 1961 Crown Copyright

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