[2024] UKUT 190 (AAC)

The Tribunal recorded Dr Padayatchi,, OO’s then responsible clinician, as having said that she was in agreement with the assessment of Dr Kottalgi (a consultant forensic psychiatrist) that OO could be conditionally discharged. She was “confident that it will be possible to put in place a suitable care package in the community which will permit safe management of the risks” and she “did not think that testing by unescorted leave” was a necessary preliminary to discharge”. However, three obstacles lay in the way of an immediate conditional discharge:

Rather than order a deferred conditional discharge, the Tribunal decided to adjourn the matter and make directions for the provision of further information because it could see that “with further information and clarification an immediate or deferred conditional discharge might be appropriate, which is what the care team suggest” (see paragraph [6] of the 13 July 2022 decision notice).