{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-act-1983/section-87",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-act-1983/section-87.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1983/20",
  "legislation_title": "Mental Health Act 1983",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-act-1983",
  "path": "section/87",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "87",
  "heading": "Patients absent from hospitals in Northern Ireland.",
  "text": "(1) Any person who—\n(a) under Article 29 or 132 of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (which provide, respectively, for the retaking of patients absent without leave and for the retaking of patients escaping from custody); or\n(b) under the said Article 29 as applied by Article 31 of the said Order(which makes special provision as to persons sentenced to imprisonment),\nmay be taken into custody in Northern Ireland, may be taken into custody in, and returned to Northern Ireland from, England and Wales by an approved mental health professional , by any constable or by any person authorised by or by virtue of the said Order to take him into custody.\n(2) This section does not apply to any person who is subject to guardianship.",
  "extent": "E+W+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words substituted by S.I. 1986/596, art. 2(15)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in s. 87(1) substituted (3.11.2008 for E.W.) by Mental Health Act 2007 (c. 12), ss. 21, 56, Sch. 2 para. 7(f) (with Sch. 10); S.I. 2008/1900, art. 2(d) (with art. 3, Sch.); S.I. 2008/2561, art. 2(b) (with art. 3, Sch.)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1983/20/section/87",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:09:24.002453+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."
}