Many of the bar's suggestins have been adopted by
the ad hoc group and also the Administration. My hon.
Colleague Mrs. Rosanna TAM has already mentioned them in
her very lucid speech and they relate to the following :
ec.
(a) First, the new section 71B now and will impose an
objective test on the police officer in his
decision whether person found in any place is
suffering from mental disorder and to be in
immediate need of care and control by the use of
the words "whom you reasonably believe" and not
the original subjective test
test by the use of the
words "who appears to him";
(b) Secondly, section 71B(5) now makes it plain that
subsection (1) does not confer any additional
power on the police officer to enter private
premises so as to remove a person suffering from
mental disorder
to a place of safety, and
therefore he can only enter private premises when
he is invited to do so; and
le
an
(c) thirdly, application for a mental patient's
detention under the amended section 31 can only
be made to a district judge or magistrate but not
to a Justice of the Peace. These are clearly
good improvements to the Bill.