The Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (Hague Convention Countries) Order 1993

5.  For section 5 there shall be substituted–

(1) This section applies to a maintenance order a certified copy of which has been sent to a Hague Convention country for recognition and enforcement of the order.

(2) The jurisdiction of a magistrates' court to revoke or vary a maintenance order shall be exercisable notwithstanding that the proceedings for the revocation or variation, as the case may be, of the order are brought by or against a person residing in a Hague Convention country.

(3) Where subsection (1) of section 60 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980(1)(revocation, variation etc. of orders for periodical payment) applies in relation to a maintenance order to which this section applies, that subsection shall have effect as if for the words “by order on complaint,” there were substituted “on an application being made, by order”.

(4) Where an application is made by the payee to a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland for the variation or revocation of an order to which this section applies, and the payer is residing in a Hague Convention country, the prescribed officer of the court shall send to the Lord Chancellor notice of the institution of the proceedings, including notice of the substance of the application, with a view to its being transmitted by him to the appropriate authority in the Hague Convention country for service on the payer.

(5) Where an application is made by the payee to a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland for the variation or revocation of an order to which this section applies, and the payer is residing in a Hague Convention country–

(a) the court, in considering whether or not to vary or revoke the order, shall take into account any representations made and any evidence adduced by or on behalf of the payer;

(b) a copy of any such representations or evidence shall be served on the payee in the prescribed manner before the hearing;

(c) the prescribed officer of the court shall give the payer notice in writing of the date fixed for the hearing by sending the notice by post addressed to his last known or usual place of abode.

(6) Where an application is made by the payee to a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland for the variation or revocation of an order to which this section applies, and the payer is residing in a Hague Convention country, the order shall not be varied or revoked unless the document mentioned in subsection (4) above has been served on the payer in accordance with the law for the service of such a document in the Hague Convention country not less than six weeks previously.

(7) Where an application is made by the payer to a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland for the variation or revocation of an order to which this section applies, the prescribed officer of the court shall arrange for the service of the document mentioned in subsection (4) above on the payee.

(8) Where an order to which this section applies has been varied or revoked by a court in the United Kingdom the prescribed officer of the court shall send the following documents, that is to say–

(a) a certified copy of the order of variation or revocation;

(b) a certificate signed by that officer certifying that the order of variation or revocation is enforceable and that it is no longer subject to the ordinary forms of review;

(c) a written statement, signed by that officer as to whether or not the respondent or, in Scotland the defender, appeared in the proceedings for the variation or revocation of the order, and, if he did not appear, the original or a certified copy of a document which establishes that notice of the institution of the proceedings has been served on the respondent, or, as the case may be, the defender; and

(d) a document which establishes that notice of the order of variation or revocation was sent to the respondent; and

(e) a written statement signed by that officer as to whether or not the payer or the payee received legal aid in the proceedings,

in the case of a court in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, to the Lord Chancellor, or, in the case of a court in Scotland, to the Secretary of State, with a view to their being transmitted by him to the appropriate authority in the Hague Convention country for recognition and enforcement of the order of variation or revocation.

(9) Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been varied by an order made by a court in the United Kingdom or by a competent court in a Hague Convention country the maintenance order shall, as from the date on which the order of variation took effect, have effect as varied by that order.

(10) Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been revoked by an order made by a court in the United Kingdom or by a competent court in a Hague Convention country the maintenance order shall, as from the date on which the order of revocation took effect, be deemed to have ceased to have effect except as respects any arrears due under the maintenance order at that date.

(11) Where a maintenance order to which this section applies has been varied or revoked by an order made by a competent court in a Hague Convention country, the prescribed officer of the court shall register the order of variation or revocation in the prescribed manner.

(12) In the application of this section to Northern Ireland, in subsection (8), for the word “respondent”, in each place where it occurs, there shall be substituted “defendant”.”.

(1)

1980 c. 43; section 60(1) was substituted by section 4 of the Maintenance Enforcement Act 1991 (c. 17).