Place of safety orders
Place of safety order notifications 2009-10
Our interest in this
Section 297 of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 provides authority for a police constable to remove a person from a public place where they reasonably suspect that the person has a mental disorder and is in immediate need of care or treatment. The order allows the person to be detained in the place of safety for up to 24 hours. Designated places of safety are normally a hospital and should not be a police station.
The 2003 Act places a duty on police officers to report to us when they convey a person to a place of safety under section 297. We are aware that compliance with this part of the Act is variable.
What we found
We received 209 notifications of place of safety orders this year. In 33 cases we were able to identify that the person had been detained in hospital under an EDC or STDC (28), admitted informally (4) or been subject to the nurses holding power (1). It was not possible to identify from the form or our records whether the remaining 176 people went on to receive treatment in hospital, or were discharged.
It is clear from the forms that the use of Section 297 is variable. On occasion, it is being used inappropriately, for example to record instances where police have assisted in the admission of a patient detained on an EDC in the community. We will look in greater detail at the forms that we receive and consider whether good practice guidance is required.
Annual reports
- Director's introduction
- overview of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
- new orders granted in 2009-2010
- total numbers of 2003 Act orders in existence
- monitoring our priority areas
- additional findings from our monitoring of mental health law
- our overview of the use of the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000