Hi
Does the NR only have the right to apply to a Tribunal in the following cases:
Section 3, 17a, but only where they have applied to the hospital managers for the patients discharge and the RC has barred this using M2 (28 days to appeal from date of barring order).
Section 37 - second 6 months of the patients detention, then yearly. Do not need a barring certificate.
Are there any other circumstances?
Thanking you in advance.
A “former” nearest relative can also apply to a tribunal if a County Court has displaced them and appointed an acting nearest relative, on the grounds that the nearest relative was unreasonably objecting to an application for treatment or guardianship (s29(3)(c)), or alternatively if the court decides the nearest relative has “exercised without due regard to the welfare of the patient or the interests of the public his power to discharge the patient” (s29(3)(d))
There’s a really useful Eligibility Table on the website of the Mental Health Tribunal for Wales.
Go to Forms & Guidance and it’s there.
For completeness, the NR of an unrestricted Part 3 patient can also apply in a few other situations (section 69).
(1) Patient goes from a s37 hospital order onto a CTO. NR can apply once during the first six months of the CTO (but only once six months have passed since the making of the original hospital order), then once in each period for which the CTO is renewed. They can also apply if the CTO is revoked (within six months of the revocation, but again only once six months have passed since the original hospital order).
(2) Patient given a s37 guardianship order (or transferred under s19 onto one from a hospital order). NR can apply once during the first 12 months, then once every subsequent 12 months.
(3) Patient on a s37 guardianship order is transferred to hospital under s19 (and so becomes a s37 hospital order patient). NR can apply once in the six months following the transfer (and then once in every renewal period).
As the NR of my late brother I had the right to apply for a Tribunal every six months and did so for the continuous years he was detained under section from November 2017 until his death on 3 June 2022.
Also what I learnt during this time is that the NR - and indeed anyone with the patient’s permission - can apply on behalf of the patient for Tribunals and can help the patient to make their own application. The usual way of course is that a lawyer does this. Look at the application form to confirm this.