HC Deb 15 October 1969 vol 788 cc464-6

Lords Amendment No. 27: In page 29, line 3, at end insert new Clause "A": A.—(1) If it appears to the Scretary of State, on the application of the welfare authority or the managers of the training school to whose care a person is committed by a fit person order or by virtue of a training school order, that his parent or guardian resides or will reside in the area of a local authority in England or Wales, the Secretary of State may make an order committing him to the care of that local authority; and while an order under this subsection is in force it shall have effect as if it were a care order and as if sections 20(2) and (3) and 21(1) and (5) of this Act were omitted and in section 29(3)(a) of this Act for the reference to section 20(3) there were substituted a reference to subsection (3) of this section. (2) If it appears to the Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland, on the application of the local authority to whose care a person is committed by a care order other than an interim order, that his parent or guardian resides or will reside in Northern Ireland, the said Minister may make an order committing him to the care of the managers of a training school or to the care of the welfare authority in whose area his parent or guardian resides or will reside; and the provisions of the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968 (except sections 83(3)(a), 88(3), 90 and 91(3) shall apply to an order under this subsection as if it were a training school order made on the date of the care order or, as the case may he, a fit person order. If an order under this subsection commits a person to the care of the managers of a training school, the contributions to be made in respect of him under section 161 of the said Act of 1968 shall be made by such council as may be named in that order, being the council within whose district his parent proposes to reside or is residing at the time of the order. (3) When a person is received into the care of a local authority or welfare authority or the managers of a training school in pursuance of an order under this section, the training school order, fit person order or care order in consequence of which the order under this section was made shall cease to have effect; and the order under this section shall, unless it is discharged earlier, cease to have effect— (a) in the case of an order under subsection (1), on the earlier of the following dates, that is to say, the date when the person to whom the order relates attains the age of nineteen or the date when, by the effiuxion of time, the fit person order aforesaid would have ceased to have effect or, as the case may be, the period of his detention under the training school order aforesaid would have expired; (b) in the case of an order under subsection (2), on the date when the care order aforesaid would have ceased to have effect by the effiuxion of time or— (i) if the person to whom the order relates is committed by it to the care of a welfare authority and will attain the age of eighteen before that date, when he attains that age; (ii) if the order has effect by virtue of subsection (2) as a training school order and the period of supervision following the detention of the person in question in pursuance of the order expires before that date, when that period expires. (4) An order under this section shall be sufficient authority for the detention in Northern Ireland, by any constable or by a person duly authorised by a local authority or welfare authority or the managers of a training school, of the person to whom the order relates until he is received into the care of the authority or managers to whose care he is committed by the order. (5) In this section 'training school', 'training school order' and 'welfare authority' have the same meaning as in the said Act of 1968, and 'fit person order' means an order under that Act committing a person to the care of a fit person.

Mr. Elystan Morgan

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Clause provides for the transfer to Northern Ireland of persons subject to English court orders and for the transfer to England or Wales of persons subject to Northern Ireland training school orders or fit person orders. These transfer provisions operate, as with the transfer provisions between England and Scotland which will be moved later, only where the parent or guardian of the child resides or will reside in the other country.

This can arise where after an order has been made in relation to the child the parent moves to the other country and it is desirable that the child should be moved there, too. Or it can arise, more exceptionally in the case of Northern Ireland, where a child resident in one country comes before a court in the other country.

Question put and agreed to.