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TheShrink said:

In which county?

Err.. maybe the name “Jock” is a clue ;o)

Well, whilst awaiting an up to date response - I remember doing lots of pt escorts to general hospital when I was in UK.
Tho working at an independent private medium-secure forensic hospital; the laws applied the same to us as anywhere.

I recall that we ensured a qualified nurse remained with the patient - but this was for two reasons:
1. in case of need for intervention
2. to provide qualified support and opinion to the general ward staff

In terms of legal requirement I don’t think there are strict provisions in the Act that mandate the qualification status of an ‘escort’ and all provisions were made on risk assessment.
Of course, anyone detained s41 was automatically considered a high risk - but mostly in terms of ‘consequences’ if anything went wrong and we were asked why ‘only’ a HCA was accompanying.
However, I am sure I recall a time where low risk patients have been chaperoned by HCAs - as this is no different to the application of s17 leave - where unqualified staff might accompany a patient on escorted leave.

However, this was before new amendments and therefore is possibly outdated.
Did you also mean s25 CTO rather than s52?

A query from “jock” in the live chat box:

jock : I wonder if anyone could reply to the following question,Can section patients ie 52 cto when transferred to General hospital be looked after by Health care assistant on there own,without a Rmn present,,,,,, I Have Worked in the health service for a number of years and when asked to go over to general wards to look after Informal patients I didnt blink an eyelid,,,though now when I and other health care assistants are asked to transfer and sit with section patients because the Rmn doesnt want to