This is a report by a Working Party of general and specialist psychiatrists appointed in June 1972, by the Executive Committee of the Scottish Division of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The remit of this Working Party was ‘to consider and make recommendations on the future provision of psychiatric services in Scotland’.

Last Autumn, the Institute of Psychiatry celebrated its jubilee, that is to say, the fiftieth anniversary of the recognition by the University of London of the Maudsley Hospital as one of its medical schools. Most suitably, the occasion was marked by our acting as hosts to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Quarterly Meeting, during which our Chairman, Lord Justice Ormrod, f.r.c.p., gave the College’s annual Maudsley Lecture.

Of five judges, three have answered in the negative and two in the affirmative the question put to them by the House of Lords in the Mordaunt case, namely whether the insanity of one of the parties in a divorce suit should preclude the other party from going on with this suit. Lady Mordaunt having been pronounced insane, the Divorce judge had decided that the insanity was a bar to the husband’s prosecution of his suit for divorce on the ground of adultery; and this ruling was confirmed by a majority of judges in the full Court. Sir Charles appealed to the House of Lords, which called in the assistance of the judges, who have illustrated their perplexity by delivering elaborate judgements on opposite sides of the question.

Over the past year the Society has submitted evidence to the Trethowan Committee, the Lane Committee and the D.H.S.S. Committee considering the ethical aspects of behavioural modification programmes. In each instance the evidence has been based on questionnaires or on draft statements amended in the light of members’ invited comments.

Likewise, early draft reports of Study Groups are submitted to all members for comment and rewritten to accommodate views expressed. The Study Group finally passes the Report to the Executive Committee for further amendment or approval prior to distribution as a Study Group Report to all psychiatrists in the British Isles and to members overseas.