New division of Mental Health Review Tribunal to oversee release of forensic patients

05/04/2008

A specialist division of the Mental Health Review Tribunal will be established to oversee the release of forensic patients. Decisions on the release of forensic patients – formerly the responsibility of the executive and the NSW governor – will be handed to the new Forensic Division.

The new procedure is one of the recommendations in the final report�by the Review of the New South Wales Forensic Mental Health Legislation, conducted�by Mental Health Review Tribunal President Greg James. That report�is now available on the NSW Health website.

In�his announcement of the changes, the minister assisting the minister for health (mental health), Paul Lynch, said the Forensic Division would be chaired by a sitting or former judge, and that "strict statutory criteria would have to be met before a patient could be released".

The Bar Association made a submission to the review by the Hon Greg James QC.

8 April 2008