Queensland Consolidated Acts

MENTAL HEALTH ACT 2016 - SECT 20

20 Psychiatrist reports

(1) If a person subject to a treatment authority, forensic order or treatment support order is charged with a serious offence, the person, or someone on the person’s behalf, may request that a psychiatrist prepare a report stating the psychiatrist’s opinion about whether the person—

(a) may have been of unsound mind at the time of the alleged commission of the serious offence; or

(b) may be unfit for trial.

(2) Also, if a person is charged with a serious offence, whether or not the person is subject to a treatment authority, forensic order or treatment support order, the chief psychiatrist may direct that a psychiatrist prepare a report about the matters mentioned in subsection (1) if the chief psychiatrist considers it is in the public interest.

(3) A serious offence is an indictable offence, other than an offence that, under the Criminal Code , must be heard and decided summarily.