Nigel Turner's HyperGUIDE to the Mental Health Act

Section 135

Power to Enter Premises and Take a Person to a Place of Safety

Summary

Section 135 enables an Approved Social Worker to seek a warrant from a Justice of the Peace which will allow a police officer to enter premises (by force if necessary) in order to search for someone with mental health problems and take them to a Place of Safety. Like Section 136, this is not an admission Section, but one which allows assessment to take place at the Place of Safety, as to whether a Section 2 or other admission Section should be implemented.

Duration

Up to 72 hours from the time the person first arrives at the Place of Safety. There is no provision for this time to be renewed or extended. Normally the assessment should be completed well within the 72 hour period and the Section 135 powers then lapse.

Conditions

The grounds for the warrant, as stated in the Act, are that it appears to the Justice of the Peace [JP] that "there is reasonable cause to suspect" that, at a place within the JP's jurisdiction, a person with a mental disorder:

• is being (or has been) ill-treated, neglected, or not kept "under proper control" ; or
• is living alone and unable to care for him/herself.

Notes

The police officer who attends, and if necessary, breaks into premises in accordance with the warrant, must be accompanied by an Approved Social Worker [ASW] and a doctor. This Section also provides for a police officer (rather than an ASW) to obtain a warrant to enter premises when seeking to re-take a patient who is already Sectioned and liable to be detained, but who is absent without leave. In this case the police officer may be accompanied by an Approved Social Worker [ASW] and a doctor, but this is not compulsory.