{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016/section-88",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-capacity-act-northern-ireland-2016/section-88.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/88",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "88",
  "heading": "Request for independent mental capacity advocate to be instructed",
  "text": "(1) This section applies where it reasonably appears to an appropriate healthcare professional—\n(a) that a determination needs to be made of whether a particular act would be in the best interests of a person (“P”) who is 16 or over and lacks capacity in relation to the matter; and\n(b) that by reason of section 35 or 55, an independent mental capacity advocate needs to be instructed to represent and provide support to P in that determination.\n(2) The appropriate healthcare professional may request the relevant trust to instruct an independent mental capacity advocate to represent and provide support to P in the determination of whether the act would be in P's best interests.\n(3) A request under this section may be made only if the steps required by section 89 have been taken so far as practicable.\n(4) A request under this section must be in a prescribed form and include prescribed information.\n(5) In this section—\n“appropriate healthcare professional” means a person of a prescribed description.\n“the relevant trust” means the HSC trust in whose area the act would be carried out.",
  "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/88",
    "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."
}