Hong Kong Ordinances

MENTAL HEALTH ORDINANCE - SECT 56

Medical reports on persons on remand

(Past version on 30/06/1997).

(1) If a person is committed in custody for trial in accordance with
section 85(2) of the Magistrates Ordinance ( Cap 227), the Commissioner of
Correctional Services-

   (a)  (Repealed 24 of 1993 s. 18)

   (b)  if the Secretary for Justice makes application in writing to the
        Commissioner of Correctional Services in respect of the prisoner,
        shall, (Amended 24 of 1993 s. 18) make an order in accordance with
        section 55(1), even if the Commissioner of Correctional Services has
        no reason to believe that the prisoner is a
        mentally disordered person.

(2) If the prisoner is the subject of an application by the Secretary for
Justice in accordance with subsection (1)(b), the medical  officer of the
prison or the medical superintendent of the mental  hospital, as the case may
be, shall, not less than 7 days before the date fixed for the trial of the
prisoner, submit to the Registrar and to the Secretary for Justice a report on
the mental condition of the prisoner, stating whether or not the prisoner has
exhibited any indication of insanity and whether or not he is fit to plead.
(Amended 24 of 1993 s. 18)

(3) A report submitted in accordance with subsection (2) shall not express any
opinion as to the degree of responsibility of the prisoner at the time when
the offence with which he is charged was committed but if, from symptoms
exhibited while under observation in the prison or in the mental hospital, the
medical officer of the prison or the medical  superintendent of the
mental hospital, as the case may be, is of the opinion that insanity exists
and has done so for some time previous to the date when the offence was
committed, or that there is any history of insanity, his report should embody
this opinion. (Amended L.N. 362 of 1997)