Holding powers in hospitals under the Mental Health Act 1983

The great majority of patients receiving inpatient treatment for a mental disorder do so on an informal basis (NHS Digital, 2019). Informal status was introduced by the Mental Health Act 1959 and replaced formal voluntary admission, which required patients to give written consent to being hospitalised.

Informal admission is set out as a miscellaneous provision under the Mental Health Act 1983, section 131, and provides that:

‘…nothing in this Act shall be construed as preventing a patient who requires treatment for mental disorder from being admitted to any hospital … without any application, order or direction rendering him liable to be detained under this Act, or from remaining in any hospital … after he has ceased to be so liable to be detained.’

The negative framing of the section emphasises the 1983 Act's focus on detained patients, but it does allow for a person to be admitted for assessment and treatment without being detained and to remain in hospital after their period of detention has ended (R v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council [1993]).