HC Deb 26 July 1967 vol 751 cc886-8

Lords Amendment: No. 101, in page 43, line 29, at the end to insert new Clause "P":

"P.—(1) On an information in writing being laid before a justice of the peace for any area in England and Wales or Northern Ireland and substantiated on oath, or on an application being made to a sheriff, magistrate or justice of the peace in Scotland, alleging that any person is—

  1. (a) an offender unlawfully at large from a prison or other institution to which the Prison Act applies in which he is required to be detained after being convicted of an offence; or
  2. (b) a convicted mental patient liable to be retaken under section 40 or 140 of the Mental Health Act, 1959, section 36 or 106 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act, 1960 or section 30 or 108 of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1961 (retaking of mental patients who are absent without leave or have escaped from custody);
the justice, sheriff or magistrate may issue a warrant to arrest him and bring him before a magistrates' court for that area or, in Scotland, before any sheriff.

(2) Where a person is brought before a magistrates' court or sheriff in pursuance of a warrant for his arrest under this section, the court or sheriff shall, if satisfied that he is the person named in the warrant and if satisfied as to the facts mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of the foregoing subsection, order him to be returned to the prison or other institution where he is required or liable to be detained or, in the case of a convicted mental patient, order him to be kept in custody or detained in a place of safety pending his admission to hospital.

(3) Section 139 of the Mental Health Act 1959, section 105 of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1960 and section 107 of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland) 1961 (custody, conveyance and detention of certain mental patients) shall apply to a convicted mental patient required by this section to be conveyed to any place or to be kept in custody or detained in a place of safety as they apply to a person required by or by virtue of the said Act of 1959, 1960 or 1961, as the case may be, to be so conveyed, kept or detained.

(4) In this section— 'convicted mental patient' means a person liable after being convicted of an offence to be detained under Part V of the Mental Health Act, 1959, Part V of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act, 1960 or Part III of the Mental Health Act (Northern Ireland), 1961 in pursuance of a hospital order or transfer direction together with an order or discretion restricting his discharge; 'place of safety' has the same meaning as in Part V of the said Act of 1959 or 1960 or Part III of the said Act of 1961, as the case may be; 'Prison Act' means the Prison Act, 1952, the Prisons (Scotland) Act, 1952 or the Prison Act (Northern Ireland), 1953, as the case may be.

(5) Section 27 of the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914 (power to issue warrants for the arrest of persons who may be arrested without a warrant) shall cease to have effect."

Miss Bacon

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

The primary purpose of the New Clause which was tabled by the Government at the Committee stage in the other place, is to facilitate the recovery of prisoners who have absconded to the Irish Republic.

Question put and agreed to.