Commentary on Sections Part 12 - Sentencing Chapter 8: Other Provisions about sentencing Section 294: Duration of directions under Mental Health Act 1983 in relation to offenders
641.Section 294 makes amendments to section 50 of the Mental Health Act 1983 dealing with arrangements for the release, or return to prison, of serving prisoners who have been transferred to hospital for medical treatment. It replaces references to the expiration of a prisoner’s sentence with references to his release date. This means that the Secretary of State can only treat the patient as a restricted patient until the time when the prisoner would have been released from prison. On the release date the Secretary of State ceases to be able to send the patient back to prison or control decisions on leave, transfer or discharge from hospital under the 1983 Act. New section 50(3) of the 1983 Act provides that the release date means the date on which the prisoner would be entitled to be released if he had not been transferred to hospital, disregarding any powers that the Parole Board would have if he were still detained in prison, or any discretionary powers of early release exercisable by the Secretary of State. This means that schemes for early release such as the home detention curfew scheme are not taken into account and that (subject to the changes made in section 295 of the Act) life prisoners have to return to prison and to apply to the Parole Board in order to be released.