# Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, Section 231: Social circumstances report: mental health officer’s duties


(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, where a relevant event occurs in respect of a patient, the mental health officer shall, before the expiry of the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the event occurs—
(a) prepare in respect of the patient a social circumstances report; and
(b) send a copy of the report to—
(i) the patient’s responsible medical officer; and
(ii) the Commission.
(2) If in any case the mental health officer considers that a social circumstances report would serve little, or no, practical purpose, the mental health officer—
(a) need not comply with subsection (1) above; but
(b) shall, before the expiry of the period mentioned in that subsection—
(i) record the reasons for deciding that any such report would serve little, or no, practical purpose; and
(ii) send a statement of those reasons to the patient’s responsible medical officer and to the Commission.
(3) In this section, “social circumstances report” means a report setting out such information as may be prescribed by regulations.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2003/13/section/231 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-care-and-treatment-scotland-act-2003/section-231
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.