RESTRICTION ON REMOVAL OF CHILD WHERE APPLICANT HAS PROVIDED HOME FOR THREE YEARS (Hansard, 28 October 1975)

§ Mr. McElhone
I beg to move Amendment No. 46, in page 31, line 37, at end insert: '(1A) In any case where subsection (1) applies, and

(a) the child was in the care of a local authority before he began to have his home with the applicant, and

(b) the child remains in the care of a local authority,

the authority in whose care the child is shall not remove the child from the applicant's custody except—

(i) with the applicant's consent;

(ii) with the leave of a court; or

(iii) with the authority, in terms of Part III of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, of a justice of the peace or a children's hearing'.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this we may discuss Amendment No. 47.

§ Mr. McElhone
Amendment No. 46 inserts a provision corresponding to one inserted in Committee in Clause 39(2) in relation to England and Wales. Its purpose is similar to the provision in Clause 28 which inserts a new section 34A(3) in the Adoption Act 1958 in relation to England and Wales and Scotland. The purpose of Clause 49 is to restrict the removal by local authorities of children who are the subject of custody applications by persons who have had the child concerned in their possession for a period of over three years.
Amendment No. 47 is a drafting amendment consequential to Amendment No. 46.
The inclusion of Amendment No. 46 derives from the fact that the custodianship provisions in Part II of the Bill were expanded by the Committee so as to inhibit the removal of a child by a local authority from the possession of an applicant for custody in circumstances where the applicant had had custody of the child for over three years and removal could be seen as an attempt to frustrate the wish of the applicant to obtain legal custody of the child.
The provision now made is the equivalent in Scottish terms to that contained in Clause 39(2) while allowing for 1489 the provisions relating to the temporary accommodation of the child in a place of safety contained in Part III of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. Amendment No. 46 makes equivalent provision in this regard to that in Amendment No. 29 which dealt with the removal of a child from an applicant for adoption.