Commentary on Sections Functions relating to mental health matters Section 42 - Transfers to and from special hospitals
455.This section abolishes the power of the Secretary of State (and the power of Welsh Ministers) under section 123 of the Act to direct that a patient detained in a high secure psychiatric hospital be transferred to another high secure hospital, or to any other hospital. This power was rarely used. This change would not affect the power of the managers of high secure hospitals themselves to arrange the transfer of patients by agreement with the managers of the receiving hospital.
456.The section also removes references to section 123 elsewhere in the 1983 Act and in the Health Act 1999. But it says that the repeal of section 123 does not affect the validity of the detention of anyone who has previously been transferred under section 123, nor prevent the recapture of anyone who escaped from custody while being transferred under that section.