Record of detention forms - H3

Hi, on the record of detention form (H3), how long does the hospital manager have to sign the form after the application was received?

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Hi, I often get asked about failures to complete these “record” forms (H3, and also part 2 of H4) and it is well-established that any such failure has no effect on the validity of the underlying detention, so there is no real legal effect if they are overlooked or completed incorrectly. So on that basis there can be no timescale outside of which that bit of the form can be retrospectively completed or corrected. When we find them incomplete on MHA monitoring visits we usually just suggest that someone looks up the date of receipt that they should record and completes them retrospectively, and MHA admin services note that they missed this in quality checks at the time.

Mat Kinton
National MHA Policy Advisor
CQC
(personal capacity)

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Thank you Mat, very helpful.