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Giving medical evidence to the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2025

Elliott Carthy Open the ORCID record for Elliott Carthy [Opens in a new window] ,
Ben Thompson ,
Joan Rutherford ,
Phillip Westcott ,
Georga Godwin  and
Rob Cornish
Elliott Carthy*
Affiliation:
A consultant forensic psychiatrist. His clinical interests include the treatment of mentally disordered offenders, including those with intellectual disabilities and neurodevelopmental disorders.
Ben Thompson
Affiliation:
A specialty registrar in forensic psychiatry with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK. He is interested in legal aspects of forensic psychiatry and factitious disorder in prison and legal settings, and is keen to work within the tribunal service in the future.
Joan Rutherford
Affiliation:
Chief Medical Member for the Mental Health Tribunal since 2010, a full-time post that combines management with sitting as a Medical Member of Mental Health tribunal hearings in England. She is also an honorary consultant psychiatrist with South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
Phillip Westcott
Affiliation:
A full-time salaried judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health), who in 2010 was among the first tranche of salaried judges to be authorised to sit on cases involving restricted patients. He has practised as a solicitor, specialising in mental health law and family law and was a member of the Law Society’s Mental Health Tribunal Panel and Children’s Panel.
Georga Godwin
Affiliation:
A consultant solicitor specialising in mental health and capacity law, particularly in mentally disordered offenders. She represents individuals detained under the Mental Health Act, and provides legal opinions regarding high-profile offenders for provider collaboratives, NHS trusts and integrated care boards. She also provides training on mental health and capacity law for NHS trusts and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Rob Cornish
Affiliation:
A consultant forensic psychiatrist with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK and an honorary senior clinical lecturer with the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. He has worked across a range of secure settings, including prisons, and with out-patients, and has many years of experience as a medical educator.
*
Correspondence Elliott Carthy. Email: elliottcarthy@gmail.com
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Summary

To mitigate the risk of harm to themselves or others, people with mental disorders may require compulsory admission to hospital for in-patient treatment. In England and Wales this is authorised under the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA). Patients have the right to appeal against this involuntary detention at a hearing before the First-tier Tribunal (Health Education and Social Care Chamber) Mental Health, and psychiatrists may be called on to provide written and oral evidence to the tribunal. The purpose of this article is to help psychiatrists, particularly trainees, understand the sections of the MHA involved, the patient’s right of appeal, the role of the tribunal, their own role as a professional witness, and how to improve the quality of evidence they provide.

Keywords

TribunalMental Health Actevidencereport writingeducation

Information

Type
Article
Information
BJPsych Advances , First View , pp. 1 - 13
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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References

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