The Mental Deficiency Act, 1913
- Author:
Leach
3rd Edition. As Amended by Subsequent Legislation, together with the Orders, Regulations, Rules and Circular Letters Made and Issued Thereunder with Intro- duction and Annotations, by R. A. Leach, of Gray’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law, Nor- thern Circuit. Poor-Law Publications, Ltd. 15/-.
For some years those whose duties have included the guiding- of students through the intricacies of the Mental Deficiency Act have found themselves hampered by the fact that ” Leach ” was out of print; for to read the Act by itself is a process of little value, tending, in our experience, rather to bewilder than to enlighten the enquirer, and for an intelligent grasp of it, not only notes and explanations of obscure phrases are necessary, but also the Circulars and Regulations which clothe its dry bones. Many of these Circulars it is impossible now to procure, and the text book before us is the only one which contains them. If only for that reason alone its re- appearance in a new and thoroughly revised edition would be a matter for congratulation.
The last edition was issued as long ago as December, 1914, and, as the author points out in his preface, four important legislative changes have, therefore, had to be noted :? viz., the withdrawal of the limitation on the total amount of contributions payable by the Treasury under Section 47 of the Act: the repeal of Section 45 dealing with the Super- annuation of officers of certified institutions and its replacement by the Asylums and Cer- tified Institutions (Officers’ Pensions) Act of 1918; the incorporation of the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Acts in the Education Act, 1921 ; and the con- version of the Local Government Board into the Ministry of Health.
For other important developments in con- nection with the Act it is necessary to turn to the Circular Letters issued from time to time to Local Authorities and Boards of Guardians by the Board of Control and several have been added to those which appeared in the last edition, viz., the Circular of February, 1918, dealing- with the After-Care of defectives leaving- Institutions; that of December, 1919, containing suggestions for the Institutions which it was then hoped would be rapidly built; the Circular letter issued to.Boards of Guardians in June, 1919, urging the greater use of Section 30 (ii), and the ” Review of the Conditions of Defectives and Lunatics in Poor-Law Institutions/’ which followed it.
There is also given the Poor-Law Institutions (Mental Defectives) Order of 1917, and the Board’s Model Forms of Agreement for the Reception of Defectives into Poor-Law and Certified Institutions. We regret, however, that the two important Circulars to Local Authorities issued in December, 1922, and June, 1923, on the subject of Occupation Cen- tres have been omitted. In his preface the author refers to the impossibility of including every Circular and to the inadvisability of giving those which ” are mere reminders of what has already been said in previous letters ” and ” those which, issued to deal with an exigency of the moment are apt to become out-of-date and misleading,” a point which we fully appreciate. But Circulars announcing the decision of the Treasury to empower grants to be given to Occupation Centres and authorising Local Authorities to regard them as part of the machinery of ” Supervision ” cannot be said to come within either of these categories and are surely of considerable importance. We note, too, in this connection, that the Repeal of Article 15 of the Home Secretary’s Provisional Regu- lations has been overlooked. We would also point out that Schedule F. (for the report on a child examined for mental deficiency) origin- ally appended to the Board of Education’s Revised Model Arrangements issued in 1914 and reproduced in this volume on pp. 261 to 264, was in 1921 replaced by the much simpler Form 306M.
In the notes given concurrently with the Sections of the Act many valuable additions have been made, particularly in connection with Rulings of the Courts as to the inter* pretation of certain clauses. Amongst these we would especially commend the list of Rulings with regard to Sections 43 and 44 (Determination of Residence) which present in a concise and condensed form all the important cases upon which judgment has been given- Other useful Rulings recorded are those on ” neglect ” and ” without visible means of support.” Under Section 48 there is a note as to the number of Voluntary Societies re- ceiving financial assistance and the amount paid to them during the financial year ending 31st March, 1920. We are glad that some information of the sort has been included though it is a pity that more up-to-date figures could not have been procured for the purpose.
But, despite our criticisms on points of detail, we are of opinion that in its present revised form this is a text book which no one concerned, either theoretically or practically- with the administrative side of work for de- fectives can afford to be without. We only regret that the publishers have found it neces* sary to charge for the book nearly five times the price at which it was originally issued.
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