# The Mental Health (Conflicts of Interest) (England) Regulations 2008, Regulation 7: Potential conflict of interest on the basis of a personal relationship


(1) An assessor who is considering making an application or considering giving a medical recommendation in respect of a patient, shall have a potential conflict of interest on the basis of a personal relationship if that assessor is—
(a) related to a relevant person in the first degree;
(b) related to a relevant person in the second degree;
(c) related to a relevant person as a half-sister or half-brother;
(d) the spouse, ex-spouse, civil partner or ex-civil partner of a relevant person, or
(e) living with a relevant person as if they were a spouse or a civil partner.
(2) For the purposes of this regulation—
(a) “relevant person” means another assessor, the patient, or, if the nearest relative is making the application, the nearest relative;
(b) “related in the first degree” means as a parent, sister, brother, son or daughter and includes step relationships;
(c) “related in the second degree” means as an uncle, aunt, grandparent, grandchild, first cousin, nephew, niece, parent-in-law, grandparent-in-law, grandchild-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, son-in-law or daughter-in-law and includes step relationships;
(d) references to step relationships and in-laws in sub-paragraphs (b) and (c) are to be read in accordance with section 246 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1205/regulation/7 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-conflicts-of-interest-england-regulations-2008/regulation-7
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.