J.G. v. MENTAL HEALTH TRIBUNAL FOR SCOTLAND

The sheriff principal, having resumed consideration of the cause, Refuses the appeal; Finds the appellant, as an assisted person, liable to the respondents in the expenses of the appeal procedure as these might be taxed; Allows an account thereof to be given in and Remits same, when lodged, to the auditor of court to tax and to report thereon.

[1] In this appeal, it was argued that a decision of the respondents taken at Stobhill Hospital , Glasgow on 20 December 2010 should be set aside. That decision resulted in the granting of an application, by the appellant's responsible medical officer, Dr Douglas Patience, to vary an existing compulsory treatment order from a community-based order to a hospital-based order.

[2] For the appellant, Mr McLaughlin indicated that he was founding upon procedural impropriety in the conduct of the hearing et separatim unreasonable exercise of the Tribunal's discretion. Both of these grounds of appeal are reflected within the pleas‑in‑law tabled on behalf of the appellant.

[4] The concern was that another person was present in the background and that concern seemed to have grown in the face of apparent denials by Dr Patience who stated that "he was alone".

[5] The Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland (Practice and Procedure) (No 2) Rules 2005/519 SSI relating to the conduct of Tribunal hearings dictate that such hearings must take place in private. (Rule 66(1) refers). Mr McLaughlin sub mi tted that there had been a breach of these rules; that the severity of that breach made it all the more significant; and that the Tribunal's recognition of the breach coupled with its failure to act upon it constituted procedural impropriety.