Time travel when the Court of Appeal impose a hospital order (when does it begin?)

[Jonathan]

Continuing the discussion from Lawfulness of earlier first statutory referrals by the MOJ:

@ZacSussex

I think a large part of the decision in CS (although I may be misremembering) was because the custodial sentence was replaced by a hospital order, so it took effect as if the hospital order was originally imposed when the custodial sentence was. I recall a point being that the patient would be disadvantaged if they were unable to pursue their application because they were successful in their appeal to the CrCoA.

When does a hospital order imposed by the Court of Appeal take effect? Can you start applying to the tribunal six months after the Court of Appeal decision (as if it were a brand new hospital order), or is the hospital order backdated to the date of the original sentence?

In CS v Elysium Healthcare [2021] UKUT 186 (AAC) the patient argued that the new hospital order had been backdated, but the Upper Tribunal didn’t deal with this (apart from saying that some other arguments “have force”). I remember long discussions about this point about 15 years ago, as it was potentially going to be relevant to a client, and getting conflicting answers from criminal appeal barristers and solicitors. Has it been resolved in the meantime?