# Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, Section 63: “Serious intervention”


(1) In this Part “serious intervention” means an intervention in connection with the care, treatment or personal welfare of P which (or any part of which)—
(a) consists of or involves major surgery;
(b) causes P serious pain, serious distress, or serious side-effects;
(c) affects seriously the options that will be available to P in the future, or has a serious impact on P's day-to-day life; or
(d) in any other way has serious consequences for P, whether physical or non-physical.
(2) Without prejudice to subsection (1), and to avoid any doubt, each of the following is a serious intervention for the purposes of this Part—
(a) any deprivation of liberty;
(b) the imposition of a requirement mentioned in section 28(1)(a) (requirements to attend at particular times or intervals for certain treatment);
(c) the imposition of a community residence requirement (see section 31).
(3) Regulations may provide that a prescribed intervention (except one mentioned in subsection (2))—
(a) is to be regarded as an intervention falling within a particular paragraph of subsection (1); or
(b) is not to be regarded as such an intervention.
(4) If—
(a) the act mentioned in section 9(1) is, or is part of, an intervention which turns out to be a serious intervention, but
(b) at the time the act is done D reasonably believes that the risk that the intervention will turn out to be a serious intervention is negligible,
that act is to be treated for the purposes of this Part as if the intervention were not a serious intervention.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2016/18/section/63 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016/section-63
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.