§ Mr. R. RICHARDSONasked the Minister of Health upon what grounds the Board of Control have on four occasions deprived a medical practitioner skilled in mental illness, and whose name appears on two medical registers, of the right appertaining to medical practitioners to sign a certificate of sanity as prescribed under Section 49 of the Lunacy Act, 1890; whether, seeing that this constitutes defamation, the Law Officers of the Crown were consulted before such deprivation was decided upon; and, if not, whether they will now be consulted?
§ Sir A. MONDUnder Section 49 of the Lunacy Act, 1890, the Board of Control have full discretion to authorise any medical practitioner to visit a patient for the purposes of the Section. In the exercise of their discretion the Board endeavour to select medical practitioners who are in their opinion best qualified to act. The mere fact that the Board have not selected any particular medical practitioner whose name has been submitted to them is in no way defamatory and there neither has been nor is any reason for consulting the Law Officers of the Crown in the matter.