20.—(1) Where a patient or the person who applied for a recommendation under which a patient is detained in an approved centre applies to the clinical director of the centre for a transfer of the patient to another approved centre, the clinical director may, if he or she so thinks fit, arrange for the transfer of the patient to the centre with the consent of the clinical director of the second-mentioned approved centre.

(2) Where a patient is transferred to an approved centre under subsection (1), the clinical director of the centre from which he or she has been transferred shall, as soon as may be, give notice in writing of the transfer to the Commission.

(3) A patient may be detained in an approved centre to which he or she has been transferred under subsection (1) until the date of the expiration of the admission order pursuant to which he or she was detained in the centre from which he or she was transferred.

(4) The detention of a patient in another approved centre under this section shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be detention in the centre from which he or she was transferred.

(5) In this section references to an admission order include references to a renewal order.