{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-northern-ireland-order-1986/article-21",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-northern-ireland-order-1986/article-21.json",
  "legislation": "nisi/1986/595",
  "legislation_title": "The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/mental-health-northern-ireland-order-1986",
  "path": "article/21",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "21",
  "heading": "Rectification of guardianship applications and recommendations",
  "text": "(1) Where within the period of 14 days beginning with the day on which a guardianship application has been accepted by the responsible authority the application, or any recommendation given for the purposes of the application, is found to be in any respect incorrect or defective, the application or recommendation may, within that period and with the consent of that authority, be amended by the person by whom it was signed; and where any such amendment is made the application or recommendation shall have effect and shall be deemed always to have had effect as if it had been originally made as so amended.\n(2) Without prejudice to paragraph (1), where within the period mentioned in that paragraph it appears to the responsible authority that one of the recommendations on which the guardianship application is founded is insufficient to warrant reception into guardianship in pursuance of the application, it may, within that period, give notice in writing to that effect to the applicant; and where any such notice is given in respect of a recommendation that recommendation shall be disregarded, but the application shall be, and shall be deemed always to have been, sufficient if—\n(a) a fresh recommendation complying with the relevant provisions of this Part (other than, in the case of a medical recommendation, the provisions relating to the time of signature and the interval between medical examinations) is furnished to the authority within that period; and\n(b) that recommendation and the other recommendations on which the application is founded together comply with those provisions.\n(3) Where the medical recommendations upon which an application under this Part is founded are, taken together, insufficient to warrant reception into guardianship in pursuance of the application, a notice under paragraph (2) may be given in respect of either of those recommendations; but this paragraph shall not apply in a case where the application is of no effect by virtue of Article 18(7).\n(4) The responsible authority shall immediately inform RQIA of any amendment made under paragraph (1) and shall immediately forward to RQIA a copy of any fresh recommendation furnished to the authority under paragraph (2)(a).",
  "extent": "N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "1994 NI 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in Order substituted (1.4.2009) by Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (c. 1), ss. 32, 34(3), Sch. 6 para. 8(1) (subject to Sch. 6 para. 8(2)-(4)); S.R. 2009/114, art. 2"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1986/595/article/21",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T04:48:38.738443+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."
}