Commentary on Sections Part 10 – Criminal Justice Chapter 2 – Powers of Court on Conviction Section 168 - Section 167: the detention conditions
This section provides the detention conditions that must be met in order for the court to make a public protection order with or without restrictions. The court must be satisfied, on the required medical evidence, that: the offender has an impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain; appropriate care or treatment is available for the offender in the establishment specified in the public protection order; dealing with the offender in any other way not involving his or her detention would create a risk, linked to the impairment or disturbance, of serious physical or psychological harm to other people; and detaining the offender is a proportionate response to both the likelihood of the harm concerned and the seriousness of that harm.
The court must also be satisfied that making an order that: detaining the individual is the most suitable way of dealing with the case, having regard to any other ways of dealing with the offender; the nature of the offence; the past history of the offender; and the risk of serious physical or psychological harm to other persons if the individual was not detained. In considering whether it would be appropriate to deal with the offender in a way not involving detention, or what risk doing so would create, the court must consider whether it could also make a sexual offences prevention order made under section 104 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 or a violent offences prevention order and the effect of such an order. A violent offences protection order has the same meaning as in Part 8 of the Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2015.