Sections 50 to 53 of the 1983 Act provide for the remission of prisoners or other detainees with severe mental health needs back to their prison or other place of detention (or, where relevant, their release) where no effective treatment for the mental disorder can be given. This test differs slightly from the detention criteria in the rest of the 1983 Act and is distinguished because these patients in practice may refuse to engage with treatment or behave in a disruptive manner such that treatment cannot practically be given. These provisions allow for remission in cases where treatment is available as a general concept, but the circumstances mean it cannot be given to the patient.
	Section 9 retains the ‘can be given’ aspect of the test but standardises the type of treatment to ‘appropriate medical treatment’ for consistency with the rest of the 1983 Act. In practice, this change has no practical or legal effect and is technical in nature.
Appropriate medical treatment Section 9: Discharge of prisoners etc. from hospital: treatment condition