Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1932
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1932 c. 47 |
Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1932
(22 & 23 Geo. 5.) 47.
An Act to make further and better provision in Scotland for the protection and welfare of the young and the treatment of young offenders; to amend in their application to Scotland the Children Act, 1908, and other enactments relating to the young; and for objects connected with the purposes aforesaid.
[12th July 1932]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Juvenile Courts.
1 Juvenile courts.
(1) Courts of summary jurisdiction constituted as hereafter provided in this Part of this Act shall sit so often as is necessary for the following purposes, that is to say—
(i) to hear charges against children and young persons;
(ii) to hear proceedings under section seventy of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1872 , or under section four of the Day Industrial Schools (Scotland) Act, 1893 ;
(iii) to exercise any other jurisdiction conferred on juvenile courts by this or any other Act;
and such courts so constituted and sitting for any such purpose shall be known as juvenile courts and, in whatever place sitting, shall for the purposes of such charges and proceedings have the like jurisdiction as the sheriff sitting as a court of summary jurisdiction, but as regards power to award imprisonment, to impose a fine or to ordain the finding of caution and in all other respects shall be deemed to be justice of the peace courts of summary jurisdiction.
A charge made jointly against a child or young person and a person who has attained the age of seventeen years shall, for the purposes of this section, not be treated as a charge against a child or young person.
(2) Subject as hereinafter provided no such charge or proceeding as is mentioned in the last preceding subsection shall be heard by a court of summary jurisdiction which is not a juvenile court:
Provided that—
(i) this subsection shall not apply where a child or young person is charged with an offence, and a person who has attained the age of seventeen years is charged at the same time with aiding, abetting, causing, procuring, allowing or permitting that offence; and
(ii) where in the course of any proceedings before any court of summary jurisdiction other than a juvenile court it appears that the person to whom the proceedings relate is a child or young person, nothing in this subsection shall be construed as preventing the court, if they think fit so to do, from proceeding with the hearing and determination of those proceedings; and
(iii) nothing in this subsection shall affect the power of the Lord Advocate to order proceedings to be taken in the High Court of Justiciary or the sheriff court on any such charge as aforesaid.
(3) A juvenile court sitting for the purpose of hearing a charge against, or an application relating to, a person who is believed to be a child or young person may, if they think fit so to do, proceed with the hearing and determination of the charge or application, notwithstanding that it is discovered that the person in question is not a child or young person.
(4) A juvenile court shall sit either in a different building or room from that in which sittings of courts other than juvenile courts are held, or on different days from those on which sittings of such other courts are held.
(5) A juvenile court shall have jurisdiction to make an adoption order under the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act, 1930 , if either the applicant or the child resides at the date of the application within the area for which the court acts, and the provisions of the said Act shall apply as regards the juvenile court in like manner as they apply as regards the sheriff court.
(6) (a ) This section shall not apply except in any area (being a county or a part of a county) to which the Secretary of State by order under his hand directs that the section shall apply, and any power or duty conferred on a juvenile court shall, as regards any place in which this section does not apply, be exerciseable by a court of summary jurisdiction, acting in pursuance of section one hundred and eleven of the principal Act.
(b ) In this subsection the expression ‘county’ includes a county of a city, and any burgh (not being a county of a city) shall be deemed to be included in and form part of the county in which it is situated.
(c ) An order under this subsection may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
2 Constitution of juvenile courts.
(1) Subject to the provisions of the next succeeding subsection, a panel of justices specially qualified for dealing with juvenile cases shall be formed for the purposes of this Part of this Act in every area in which section one of this Act applies, and no justice shall be qualified to sit as a member of a juvenile court unless he is a member of such a panel.
(2) The Secretary of State, after considering any representations made to him by the justices for any such areas as aforesaid, may by order direct that there shall be only one panel for any two or more such areas, and may by the same or a subsequent order provide for sittings of juvenile courts constituted from that panel being held at such places, whether within or without the area for which the court is for the time being acting, as may be specified in the order.
An order under this subsection may contain such supplemental, incidental and consequential provisions as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or proper for the purposes of the order, and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
(3) Rules made by the Lord Chancellor shall provide—
(a ) for the formation and periodical revision of panels of justices;
(b ) for limiting the number of justices who may sit as members of any juvenile court, and for the manner in which they are to be selected;
(c ) for one of the justices acting as chairman of the court and for the manner in which the chairman is to be selected.
3 Procedure in juvenile courts.
(1) The Lord Justice General may make rules for regulating the procedure in juvenile courts, and such of the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction Acts as regulate procedure shall have effect subject to any rules so made.
(2) No person shall be present at any sitting of a juvenile court, except—
(a ) members and officers of the court;
(b ) parties to the case before the court and their solicitors and counsel, witnesses and other persons directly concerned in that case;
(c ) bon fide representatives of newspapers or news agencies;
(d ) such other persons as the court may specially authorise to be present.
4 Provisions with respect to remands and bail.
(1) When a juvenile court have remanded a child or young person for information to be obtained with respect to him, any juvenile court acting for the same place—
(a ) may in his absence extend the period for which he is remanded, so, however, that he appears before a court or a justice at least once in every twenty-one days;
(b ) when the required information has been obtained, may deal with him finally;
and where the court by whom he was originally remanded have recorded a finding that he is guilty of an offence charged against him, it shall not be necessary for any court who subsequently deal with him under this subsection to hear evidence as to the commission of that offence, except in so far as they may consider that such evidence will assist them in determining the manner in which he should be dealt with.
(2) No direction, whether contained in this or any other Act, that a charge shall be brought before a juvenile court, shall be construed as restricting the powers of any justice or justices to entertain an application for bail or for a remand, and to hear such evidence as may be necessary for that purpose.
5 Laying of rules before Parliament.
5. Any rule purporting to be made by the Lord Chancellor under this Part of this Act shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after it is made, if Parliament be then sitting, or if Parliament be not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the next Session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed.
Part II.
Juveniles in need of Care or Protection and Juvenile Offenders.
Juveniles in need of Care or Protection.
6 Powers of juvenile court in respect of children and young persons needing care or protection.
(1) Any education authority, any constable or any authorised person (as defined in this section) who have or has reasonable grounds for believing that a child or young person comes within any of the descriptions hereinafter mentioned, that is to say—
(i) a child or young person who, having no parent or guardian, or a parent or guardian who is unfit to exercise care and guardianship or is not exercising proper care and guardianship, is falling into bad associations or is exposed to moral danger or is beyond control; or
(ii) a child or young person—
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