19.23Lee-Hirons v Secretary of State for Justice [2016] UKSC 46, (2016) 19 CCLR 383
A conditionally discharged patient recalled to hospital was not entitled to written reasons at the time of his recall; he was entitled to an oral explanation at the time and written reasons within 72 hours but the failure to provide such reasons did not render his detention unlawful or found a claim for damages
Facts: Mr Lee-Hirons was conditionally discharged and then later recalled to hospital. At the time of his recall he was told orally that the reason for the recall was that his mental condition had deteriorated. He was then given fuller written reasons 15 days later, rather than three days later, as required by the Secretary of State’s policy.
Judgment: the Supreme Court (Hale, Kerr, Wilson, Reed and Toulson JJSC) held that the brief explanation provided to Mr Lee-Hirons at the time of his recall satisfied all that the common law and the ECHR required and that neither the common law nor the ECHR required a recalled patient to be provided with contemporaneous written reasons. The failure to provide Mr Lee-Hirons with written reasons within three days was in breach of the Secretary of State’s policy and therefore unlawful at common law; but it did not render the detention unlawful (because there was no direct link between the breach of duty and the detention) or found a claim for damages (because it involved no tort and the effects were insufficient grave to warrant an award under the Human Rights Act 1998).