Local authorities must pay for the after care of psychiatric patients following their discharge from compulsory detention in hospital, the House of Lords has ruled.
Five law lords unanimously dismissed an appeal against an appeal court decision two years ago, which followed action, brought by Richmond, Redcar, Harrow and Manchester councils.
The appeal court had outlawed a practice under which councils had charged psychiatric patients for their after care according to their means. It held that long term hospital patients should not pay any part of the cost of their accommodation after being discharged into local authority residential homes.
The councils had claimed that under the provision of section 117 of the 1983 Mental Health Act they were under a duty to levy the charges on discharged patients.
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