R (PD) v West Midlands and North West Mental Health Review Tribunal
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 24 October 2003 |
| Date | 24 October 2003 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Before Mr Justice Silber
Human rights - mental health review tribunal - member's employers responsible for claimant's detention - no breach of fair trial provisions of Convention
It was not contrary to the fair trial provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights for a consultant to sit as the medical member of a mental health review tribunal where the National Health Service trust that was responsible for detaining the claimant was the consultant's employer.
Mr Justice Silber so held in the Queen's Bench Division in a reserved judgment, dismissing the application for judicial review by PD of the decision of the West Midlands and North West Mental Health Review Tribunal made on October 16, 2002 refusing to discharge the claimant from hospital.
Mr Hugh Southey for the claimant; Miss Nathalie Lieven for the tribunal; Mersey Care NHS Trust, interested party, was not represented.
MR JUSTICE SILBER said that the claimant was detained under section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in Rathbone Hospital, which fell within the authority of Mersey Care NHS Trust. The trust controlled not one but a significant number of hospitals.
Mersey Care provided its service through clinical directorates. Rathbone Hospital formed part of the Liverpool area of the adult mental health directorate. The other directorate was in the geographical area of Sefton and Knowsley.
The claimant complained that at the time of the hearing, that Dr Izmeth was not only a medical member of the tribunal in which Mersey Care was a party, but he was also then employed by Mersey Care as a consultant psychiatrist in the Sefton and Knowsley area.
The claimant claimed that the decision of the tribunal was incompatible with article 6 of the Human Rights Convention, with natural justice and in particular, the common-law test of bias.
The issue was whether in the view of a fair-minded and informed observer having considered the facts, there was a real possibility of subconscious bias on the part of that medical member of the tribunal.
In his Lordship's view the fact that the consultant had stated that he was not biased was not of any importance: see Porter v MagillELR((2002) 2 AC 357).
His Lordship agreed with the claimant that there was no need for there to be a specific known individual who could be said to be the superior of the judge: see Belilos v SwitzerlandHRC...
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