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Introduction
What is the purpose of section 135(1) of the Mental Health Act 1983?
Sections 135(1), 135(2), and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) provide the sole legal framework in England allowing the police to detain people believed to be or appearing to be suffering from mental disorder. The three sections all empower the police to take the person to a place of safety (typically a designated hospital facility) for further assessment for up to 72 hours, but they are very different in how, where and why they are used.
Section 136 is a formal power of arrest allowing the police to act on their own discretion to detain any apparently mentally disordered person who is in a public place and in need of "immediate care and control [...] in the interests of that person or for the protection of other persons" (MHA, 1983, section 136(1)). Sections 135(1) and 135(2), by contrast, are not exercised at the discretion of the police but rather govern how the police enter private premises to support the aims of mental health professionals.
A warrant under section 135(2) allows the police to enter private premises to retake a patient who is already liable for detention under the MHA, for example because they are subject to a treatment section of the MHA but have absconded from an inpatient ward. Section 135(1) is quite different. It allows an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) to seek a warrant to enter premises to search for a person who is not yet detained, but is believed to be suffering from a mental disorder and "being ill-treated, neglected or kept otherwise than under proper control" or "being unable to care for himself, is living alone" (MHA, 1983 section 135(1)(b)). The police officer executing a section 135(1) warrant must be accompanied by a doctor and an AMHP. Section 135(1) confers a formal power on the officer to remove the person to a place of safety for 72 hours for further assessment or to allow for other care to be arranged. The MHA Code of Practice (Department of Health, 2015) also allows for a full MHA assessment to be convened immediately at the private premises if the person consents to this.
Background and literature
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