Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1913 c. 38 |
Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1913
(3 & 4 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 38.
An Act to make better and further provision for the care of Mentally Defective Persons and to amend the Law relating to Lunacy in Scotland.
[15th August 1913]
Be , it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Part I.
Power and Manner of dealing with Defectives.
Powers of dealing with Defectives.
1 Definition of defectives.
1. The following classes of persons who are mentally defective shall be deemed to be defectives within the meaning of this Act:—
2 Duty of parents and of school board and parish council to provide for defectives.
(1) It shall be the duty of the parents or guardians of children between five and sixteen years of age who are defectives within the meaning of this Act, to make provision for the education or for the proper care and supervision of such children as the case may require, and, where the parent or guardian of a defective child is, by reason of the attendant expense, unable to make suitable provision as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the school board (except as herein-after in this section provided) to make such provision either in virtue of their powers under the Education of Defective Children (Scotland) Act, 1906 , as read with the Education (Scotland) Act, 1908 , or in terms of this Act as the local authority concerned.
(2) It shall be the duty of the school board to make arrangements, as the local authority concerned under this Act, and subject to the approval of the Scotch Education Department—
(a ) for ascertaining what children within their area are defectives within the meaning of this Act;
(b ) for ascertaining which of such children are incapable by reason of mental defect of receiving benefit or further benefit from instruction in special schools or classes, or of receiving such instruction without detriment to the interests of the other chicken and for notifying to the parish council and the General Board of Control herein-after constituted (in this Act referred to as the Board) the names and addresses of such children.
(3) In the case of doubt as to whether a child is or is not capable of receiving such benefit as aforesaid, or whether the retention of a child in a special school or class would be detrimental to the interests of the other children, the matter shall be determined by the Scotch Education Department.
(4) When the name and address of a child have been notified to the parish council under this section the duty of the school board to make suitable provision in regard to such child in terms of this Act shall be transferred to and imposed on the parish council, which shall thereafter in the case of such child be the local authority concerned under this Act.
(5) It shall be the duty of the parish council, as the local authority concerned in terms of this Act and subject to regulations made by the Board with the approval of the Secretary for Scotland, to ascertain what persons of sixteen years or over within their parish (not being persons who can be dealt with as lunatics under the Lunacy Acts) are defectives subject to be dealt with under this Act otherwise than at the instance of their parents or guardians, and to take steps for securing that they shall be dealt with by being sent to institutions or placed under guardianship in accordance with this Act.
3 Circumstances rendering defectives subject to be deal with.
(1) A person who is a defective shall be subject to be dealt with under this Act in accordance with the provisions thereof hereinafter contained—
(a ) at the instance of his parent or guardian, if he is an idiot or imbecile or at the instance of his parent if, though not an idiot or an imbecile, he is under the age of twenty-one; or
(b ) at the instance of the school board or the parish council, as the case may be, if he is a person under the age of sixteen for whom it is the duty of the school board or the parish council to make suitable provision; or
(c ) if in addition to being a defective he is a person—
(i) who is found neglected, abandoned, or without visible means of support, or cruelly treated; or
(ii) who is found guilty of any offence punishable in the case of an adult with penal servitude or imprisonment, or who is ordered or found liable to be ordered to be sent to a certified industrial school; or
(iii) who is undergoing a sentence of imprisonment (except imprisonment under civil process), or penal servitude, or is undergoing detention in a place of detention by order of a court, or in a reformatory or industrial school, or in an inebriate reformatory or who is detained in an asylum or other lawful place of detention for lunatics or a criminal lunatic asylum; or criminal lunatic department of a prison; or
(iv) who is an habitual drunkard within the meaning of the Inebriates Acts, 1879 to 1900; or
(v) in whose case such notice has been given by the school board as is herein-after in this section mentioned; or
(vi) who, being a woman and unmarried, is in receipt of poor relief at any time during her pregnancy or at the time of giving birth to a child; or
(vii) who, during any consecutive period of six months in the year immediately before the commencement of proceedings under this Act, has been in receipt of poor relief in a poor-house on three or more than three several occasions;
Provided that, in the case of persons under the age of sixteen referred to in paragraph (c ) of this subsection, the local authority concerned shall be the school board, unless such persons are, or have been, notified to the parish council under the immediately preceding section; and in the case of persons of sixteen years or over referred to in paragraph (c ) of this subsection, the local authority concerned shall be the parish council.
(2) Notice shall, subject to regulations made by the Scotch Education Department, be given by the school board to the parish council and to the Board in the case of all defective children for whom the school board have made provision and whose discharge from a special school or class, or from an institution, or from guardianship is impending by reason of their attaining the age of sixteen, in whose case the school board are of opinion that it would be to their benefit that they should be sent to or remain in an institution or be placed or remain under guardianship.
4 Power to deal with defectives at instance or with consent of parent or guardian.
4.—(1) (a ) The parent or guardian of a defective who is an idiot or imbecile, or the parent of a defective who, though not an idiot or an imbecile, is under the age of twenty-one; and
(b ) the school board with the consent of the parent or guardian of a defective under the age of sixteen for whom it is the duty of the school board to make suitable provision; and
(c ) the parish council with the consent of the parent or guardian of a defective under the age of sixteen for whom it is the duty of the parish council to make suitable provision, or of a defective of sixteen years or over, but under twenty-one years, in whose case notice has been given by the school board under the immediately preceding section;
may deal with such defective under this Act by placing him in an institution for defectives or under guardianship: Provided that he shall not be so placed except upon a certificate in writing (in the prescribed form) of two duly qualified medical practitioners, one of whom shall be a medical practitioner duly approved for the purpose by the Board or the local authority concerned (if any) stating that the person to whom the certificate relates is a defective and the class of defectives to which he belongs, accompanied by a statement, signed by the parent or guardian, giving the prescribed particulars with respect to him; and he shall not be so placed by his parent or guardian without the consent of the Board; and he shall not be so placed by a school board or a parish council unless by reason of the attendant expense he cannot be so placed except with their assistance.
(2) In this section ‘prescribed’ means prescribed under regulations made by the Board with the approval of the Secretary for Scotland.
To continue reading
Request your trial