§ (1) Subject to regulations made by the Secretary for Scotland, the Board shall—
- (a) exercise general supervision, protection, and control over defectives;
- (b)co-ordinate and supervise the administration by school boards, parish councils, and district boards of their powers and duties in regard to defectives under this Act;
- (c)certify, approve, supervise, and inspect institutions and houses for defectives, and private dwellings for the reception of defectives under guardianship, and all arrangements made for the care and control of defectives therein;
- (d) visit, either through one or more Commissioners or through Deputy-Commissioners, or inspectors, defectives in institutions and certified houses, or under guardianship, or (with a view to their certification) elsewhere, and persons who have been placed under the care of any person as being defectives;
- (e) take such part in the provision, maintenance and management of institutions for defectives of criminal, dangerous, or violent propensities as this Act requires;
- (f) take such steps as may be necessary for ensuring suitable treatment of cases of mental deficiency;
- (g) make annual reports and such special reports as the Secretary for Scotland may from time to time require;
- (h) administer grants made out of money provided by Parliament under this Act, if so required by the conditions of the grants.
§ (2) Without prejudice to their powers and duties under any regulations which the Secretary for Scotland may make for further or more frequent inspection and visitation, it shall be the duty of the Board, 1686 through one or more Commissioners or Deputy Commissioners or inspectors, to inspect every certified institution and certified house for defectives, and to visit every defective under guardianship, at least twice in every year, and the Board shall have power to discharge at any time any person detained as a defective in a certified institution or certified house or under guardianship under this Act:
§ Provided that no power of discharge conferred on the Board or the sheriff by this Act shall be exercised without the consent of the Secretary for Scotland in the case of a person sent to such an institution or placed under guardianship by order of the Secretary for Scotland from a prison, criminal lunatic asylum, place of detention, reformatory or industrial school, or inebriate reformatory, so long as the term for which he was committed to the prison or other place from which he was transferred remains unexpired.
§ Amendment made: In Sub-section (2), at the end, insert the words, "and where they are of opinion that any such person is not, or is no longer, a defective, shall take such steps as may be necessary to secure the discharge of such person without any unnecessary delay."—[Mr. McKinnon Wood.]