ABSCONDMENT FROM A PLACE OF SAFETY, OR FROM THE CONTROL OF A PERSON IMPOSED BY A SUPERVISION REQUIREMENT (Hansard, 17 July 1968)

§ Mr. Millan
I beg to move Amendment No. 33, in page 42, line 32, leave out 'placed' and insert 'detained'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this Amendment we shall be taking Amendment No. 38.

§ Mr. Millan
This is basically a drafting Amendment. The proper word is "detained" and not "placed".

§ Mr. Millan
I beg to move Amendment No. 34, in page 42, line 34, after 'requirement', insert: 'or by virtue of rules made by the Secretary of State under section 45 of this Act'. The purpose of this Amendment is to cover a gap in the Bill. The Amendment extends the circumstances in which a child may be arrested without warrant to cover cases where a child absconds while being conveyed to a residential establishment. As the Bill stands, this circumstance is not covered but obviously must be.

§ Mr. Ross
I beg to move Amendment No. 35, in page 42, line 36, after 'Kingdom', insert 'or'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this Amendment it would be convenient to discuss Government Amendments No. 36, No. 43 and No. 44.

§ Mr. Ross
It has been advised that it is not appropriate for Parliament to legislate on powers of arrest within the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man authorities have indicated their willingness to legislate for necessary powers of arrest in the Island. The effect of the Amendments is to delete the reference to the Isle of Man from Clauses 69 and 70.

§ Mr. Millan
I beg to move Amendment No. 37, in page 43, line 5, after 'unwilling', insert 'or unable'.
This is an improvement in drafting. There may be circumstances in which a person from whom a child has absconded would be willing to have him back but would be unable to do so for a variety of reasons. We therefore need to insert the words "or unable".

§ Mr. Ross
I beg to move Amendment No. 39, in page 43, line 6, leave out 'disposal of his case' and insert: 'reporter has considered, in pursuance of section 37 of this Act, whether the child may be in need of compulsory measures of care'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this we can discuss Government Amendment No. 40.

§ Mr. Ross
These Amendments are necessary to improve and clarify the provisions of Clause 69(3).

§ Mr. Millan
I beg to move Amendment No. 42, in page 43, line 13, at end insert: 1542 (5) In this and the next following section any reference to a child absconding includes a reference to his being unlawfully taken away. This is to cover the circumstances where the child does not abscond but is unlawfully taken away. The object is to allow sanctions which are applied by the Bill to apply in these cases as well.

§ Mr. Hannan
I would like some assurance on this point. I was not a member of the Standing Committee and regret having to wait until the last moment to raise this point, and if my hon. Friend cannot answer me now perhaps he will let me know later.
In 1956, I had the honour of introducing a Private Member's Act to amend the Children and Young Persons Act, 1937. My Act, in dealing with the question of absconding children, had for its purpose the rectifying of what had been discovered to be a loophole. Three children who were in the care of the Glasgow local authority were, by trickery, on three separate occasions brought to London. When Glasgow local authority discovered where they were and attempted to get them back, it had great difficulty in doing so because the local authority concerned in London refused to send them back. The courts here would not act unless thaty had evidence that the mother, who was here, had regained the children. It took this Amendment in the Act to empower one local authority in Scotland to regain children from across the Border who, by that time, were in the area of another local authority and had been restored to the mother.
If the point is covered by this Amendment, I am glad to welcome it, because it seems the most appropriate point to raise it. If the Amendment, In this and the next following section any reference to a child absconding includes a reference to his being unlawfully taken away", covers the circumstances which I have briefly tried to recite, I shall be quite relieved.

§ Mr. Millan
I think my hon. Friend will see that the point he has in mind is completely covered both from the point of view of absconding and being unlawfully taken away. My hon. Friend will also see that Clause 69 deals with any part of the United Kingdom, including Scotland. Therefore, the point is covered.