Children and Young Persons Act 1932
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1932 c. 46 |
| Year | 1932 |
Children and Young Persons Act, 1932
(22 & 23 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 46.
An Act to make further and better provision for the protection and welfare of the young and the treatment of young offenders; to amend 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 applications, the hearing of which is by rules made under this section assigned to juvenile courts;
(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 be deemed to be petty sessional courts.
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 application 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.
(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) The Lord Chancellor may by rules assign to juvenile courts the hearing of any applications for orders or licences relating to children or young persons, being applications cognisable by justices, courts of summary jurisdiction, or petty sessional courts, if, in his opinion, it is desirable in the interests of the children and young persons concerned that such applications should be heard by juvenile courts.
For the purposes of this subsection, any complaint under section forty-four or section forty-five of the Education Act, 1921 (which sections relate to the making of school attendance orders and to the proceedings to be taken where such orders are disobeyed), or under section fifty-four of that Act (which relates to the making of orders requiring defective or epileptic children to be sent to suitable classes or schools) shall be deemed to be an application for an order relating to a child.
2 Constitution of juvenile courts outside metropolitan areas.
(1) The provisions of this section shall have effect with respect to juvenile courts outside the metropolitan police court area and the City of London.
(2) 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 petty sessional division, and no justice shall be qualified to sit as a member of a juvenile court unless he is a member of such a panel.
(3) The Secretary of State, after considering any representations made to him by the justices of the petty sessional divisions concerned, may by order direct that there shall be only one panel for any two or more petty sessional divisions 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 petty sessional division 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.
(4) 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 Constitution of juvenile courts in metropolitan police court area.
(1) His Majesty may by Order in Council specify as respects the metropolitan police court area the places (which, notwithstanding anything in the Metropolitan Police Courts Acts, 1839 and 1840 , may be places other than police courts) in which juvenile courts are to sit, and assign as a division to each such place such portion of that area as may be specified in the Order.
(2) Every juvenile court in the metropolitan police court area shall be constituted of a metropolitan police magistrate nominated by the Secretary of State to act as chairman of juvenile courts within the said area and two justices of the peace for the county of London, one of whom shall be a woman, and both of whom shall be selected, in such manner as may be directed by Order in Council, from a panel of such justices nominated from time to time by the Secretary of State:
Provided that—
(i) if for special reasons the Secretary of State considers it advisable so to do, he may nominate such a justice of the peace as aforesaid to act as a chairman of juvenile courts within the said area; and
(ii) if at any time, by reason of illness or other emergency, no person so nominated is available to act as chairman of a juvenile court, any metropolitan police magistrate although not so nominated and, with the consent of the Secretary of State, any justice of the peace selected from the panel may act temporarily as a chairman; and
(iii) where it appears to the chairman that the court cannot without adjournment be fully constituted, and that the adjournment would be inexpedient in the interests of justice, he may sit with one justice selected from the panel (whether a man or a woman) or, if he is a metropolitan police magistrate, may sit alone.
(3) The Secretary of State, in nominating the chairmen of juvenile courts and the members of a panel, shall have regard to the previous experience of the persons available and their special qualifications for dealing with juvenile cases; and every such nomination shall be for a specified period and shall be revocable by the Secretary of State.
(4) A juvenile court sitting in the metropolitan police court area shall have all the powers of a metropolitan police magistrate; and for the purposes of any enactment by virtue of which any powers are exercisable—
(a ) by a court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessional division or place as a juvenile court by which some previous act has been done; or
(b ) by a juvenile court acting for the same petty sessional division or place as a court of summary jurisdiction by which some previous act has been done, the metropolitan police court area shall be deemed to be the place for which all metropolitan police magistrates sitting in that area and all juvenile courts sitting in that area act.
(5) An Order in Council made under this section may contain such supplemental, incidental and consequential provisions as appear to His Majesty in Council to be necessary or proper for the purposes of the Order, and may be revoked or varied by a subsequent Order.
4 Constitution of juvenile courts in the City of London.
(1) Juvenile courts for the City of London shall be constituted in such manner, and shall (notwithstanding anything in the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act) sit at such place or places, as the Court of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City may from time to time determine.
(2) A juvenile court constituted and sitting in accordance with such a determination as aforesaid shall have all the powers of a petty sessional court, notwithstanding that it is constituted only of the Lord Mayor or a single alderman and is not sitting in the justice room of the Mansion House or of the Guildhall.
5 Power of juvenile court to deal summarily with indictable offences at any sitting.
5. Notwithstanding anything in subsection (8) of section twenty of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, (which provides that an indictable offence shall not be dealt with summarily under that Act...
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