Contact with Children Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations provide for the steps to be taken by an authority which has refused to allow contact between a child in care and his parents and others specified in Article 53(1) of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (“the Order”), which include notifying those persons and anyone else whose wishes and feelings the authority considers to be relevant (regulation 2).

The Regulations provide for the authority to depart from the terms of any order under Article 53 of the Order as to contact, by agreement between the authority and the person about whom the order was made, where the child agrees, if he is of sufficient understanding, and where a written notification of details of the decision is sent to the person specified in regulation 2 (regulation 3). They provide for the authority to notify those persons of details of any decision to vary or suspend any arrangements made, other than under an order under Article 53 of the Order, so as to allow any person contact with a child in care (regulation 4). The Schedule sets out the information which may be given in each case.

Article 53(8) of the Order is the enabling provision under which these Regulations are made. It was brought into operation on 18th July 1996 by virtue of Article 2(1) of, and Schedule 1 to, the Children (1995 Order) (Commencement No. 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 1996 (S.R. 1996 No. 297 (C. 17)).