# Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, Article 38: Protection for property of certain persons

Extent: N.I.

(1) Where a person—
(a) is admitted as a patient to any hospital or is admitted to other accommodation provided under this Order or the 2009 Act; or
(b) is removed to any other place under an order made under Schedule 6;
and it appears to the appropriate HSC trust that there is danger of loss of, or damage to, any property of his by reason of his temporary or permanent inability to protect or deal with the property, and that other suitable arrangements have not been, or are not being made to prevent or mitigate the loss or damage, the trust shall take reasonable steps for that purpose.
(1A) The “appropriate HSC trust” is the HSC trust in whose operational area the person resides.
(2) Paragraph (1) shall have effect in relation to persons suffering from mental disorder as if—
(a) the reference to “hospital” included a reference to a private hospital within the meaning of the Mental Health Order; and
(b) after sub-paragraph ( b) there were inserted the following words—
“or
(c) is subject to guardianship under the Mental Health Order;” .
(3) For the purpose of discharging the duty of an HSC trust under paragraph (1), a person authorised in writing by the trust may, at all reasonable times, enter any premises which, immediately before the person mentioned in that paragraph was admitted or removed as aforesaid, were his place of residence or usual place of residence and may deal with any property of his in any way which is reasonably necessary to prevent or mitigate loss thereof or damage thereto.
(4) An HSC trust may recover from a person admitted or removed as aforesaid, or from any person who, for the purposes of this Order, is liable to maintain him, any reasonable expenses incurred by it in relation to him under the foregoing provisions of this Article.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1972/1265/article/38 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/health-and-personal-social-services-northern-ireland-order-1972/article-38
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.