In 1964 a Departmental Working Party on the ‘Organisation of the Prison Medical Service’ published its report. Recommendation 5 states: ‘Psychiatrists should be appointed by the Home Secretary and Regional Hospital Boards or Boards of Governors jointly for service part-time in a prison service establishment and part-time in a psychiatric hospital or clinic outside the forensic field, and possibly also in a teaching post. Some appointments should be at Registrar and Senior Registrar level and some at Consultant level.’ As a result nine such consultant appointments were made. It appeared clear from the report of the Committee on the Mentally Abnormal Offender (Butler Committee), paragraph 20/17 that ‘difficulties had been experienced in establishing satisfactory working relationships between consultants occupying the joint appointments and their colleagues in prisons'.

Infanticide is a unique offence. The law decrees that the possession of a certain state of mind at the time that a recently delivered mother kills her child is sufficient to reduce her criminal responsibility for her actions. The law does not require evidence of a direct connection between the state of mind and the killing, and the consequences are not defined. She is to be dealt with as if she were guilty of the offence of manslaughter.

In 1974 those involved in the supervision of psychotherapy in Aberdeen decided to attempt to estimate the current extent of psychotherapy practice and supervision in the Area in order to make effective plans for future training. The factors influencing this decision were the requirement of the Royal College that all trainees should have supervised experience of psychotherapy (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971), together with an increase in requests for supervision from trainees in psychiatry and clinical psychology.