{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016/section-253",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016/section-253.json",
  "legislation": "nia/2016/18",
  "legislation_title": "Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016",
  "path": "section/253",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "253",
  "heading": "Interpretation of Part 10: general",
  "text": "(1) In this Part—\n“appropriate care or treatment”, in relation to a person, means care or treatment which is (or care and treatment which are) appropriate in that person's case;\n“appropriate establishment” has the meaning given by section 167;\n“approved medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner approved by RQIA for the purposes of this Part;\n“custodial sentence” has the same meaning as in Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008 (see Article 4(1) of that Order);\n“disorder” has the meaning given by section 252;\n“hospital direction” has the meaning given by section 174;\n“hospital transfer direction” has the meaning given by section 224;\n“interim detention order” has the meaning given by section 177;\n“juvenile justice centre” has the meaning given by Article 51(1) of the Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998;\n“the period” of a public protection order without restrictions has the meaning given by section 181;\n“prison” has the same meaning as in the Prison Act (Northern Ireland) 1953;\n“public protection order” has the meaning given by section 167;\n“public protection order with restrictions” has the meaning given by that section;\n“public protection order without restrictions” has the meaning given by that section;\n“remand centre” has the meaning given by section 2(b) of the Treatment of Offenders Act (Northern Ireland) 1968;\n“the responsible medical practitioner”, in relation to a person liable to be detained in a hospital or other establishment by virtue of this Part, means the medical practitioner who is in charge of the person's care (see also subsection (2));\n“supervision and assessment order” has the meaning given by paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 7;\n“young offenders centre” has the meaning given by section 2(a) of the Treatment of Offenders Act (Northern Ireland) 1968.\n(2) Regulations may provide that the medical practitioner in charge of a person's care may carry out prescribed functions of the responsible medical practitioner under this Part only if—\n(a) the practitioner is an approved medical practitioner; or\n(b) any other prescribed condition is met.\n(3) Any reference in this Part to an offence punishable on summary conviction with imprisonment includes a reference to an indictable offence which may be tried summarily.\n(4) For the avoidance of doubt, a remand, order or direction of a court under this Part is not to be regarded for the purposes of section 2 or any other purpose of this Act as an act done or decision made for or on behalf of a person.\n(5) See also sections 304 to 306 (definitions for purposes of Act).",
  "extent": null,
  "status": "prospective",
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2016/18/section/253",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T20:19:54.781348+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}