Children and Young Persons Act 1963

23 Children and young persons detained in places of safety

(1) A court or justice of the peace—

(a) authorising any person under section 26(6) or section 67(1) of the principal Act to take a child or young person to a place of safety; or

(b) issuing a warrant under section 40 of that Act authorising a constable to take a child or young person to a place of safety ; or

(c) ordering the removal of a child or young person to a place of safety under section 7 of the Children Act 1958 or section 43 of the Adoption Act 1958;

shall specify in the warrant, authority or order a period, which shall not exceed twenty-eight days, beyond which the child or young person must not be detained in a place of safety without being brought before a juvenile court; and accordingly the child or young person shall be brought before a juvenile court not later than the end of that period unless he has been released or received into the care of a local authority.

(2) Where a child or young person has taken refuge in a place of safety or has been taken there otherwise than under the authority of a court or justice of the peace, he shall be brought before a juvenile court or a justice of the peace within the period of eight days beginning with the day when he arrived at the place of safety, unless he has been released or received into the care of a local authority.

(3) A child or young person required to be brought before a juvenile court or a justice of the peace under subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section shall (if not otherwise brought before the court or justice) be brought before the court or justice by the local authority in whose area the. place of safety is situated; and the person occupying or in charge of a place of safety not provided by that local authority shall as soon as practicable notify that local authority whenever a child or young person takes refuge there or is taken there as mentioned in subsection (1) or subsection (2) of this section.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this section, where the person to be brought before a court or justice is under the age of five or cannot be brought before the court or justice by reason of illness or accident, the duty to bring him before the court or justice may be discharged by the making of an application for an order under subsection (5) of this section.

(5) Where a person is brought before a juvenile court or justice of the peace in pursuance of subsection (3) of this section or an application is made in respect of any person to a juvenile court or justice of the peace in pursuance of subsection (4) thereof, the court or justice may either order him to be released or make an interim order for his detention in a place of safety, or for his committal to the care of a fit person, whether a relative or not, who is willing to undertake the care of him.

(6) An interim order under this section shall cease to have effect—

(a) if made by a juvenile court, not later than twenty-eight days after it is made; and

(b) if made otherwise than by a juvenile court, not later than twenty-eight days after the person in respect of whom it is made arrived at the place of safety;

but if before the expiration of that period a juvenile court thinks it expedient to do so it may make a further interim order under this section, and, where the person, concerned is under the age of five or cannot be brought before the court by reason of illness or accident, may do so in his absence.

(7) Subsections (2) to (4) of section 6 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1938 (which make provision for children and young persons needing medical treatment while in a place of safety) shall with the necessary modifications apply in relation to orders under this section as they apply in relation to such orders as are mentioned in subsection (2) of that section.

(8) In this section "young person " includes a person of or over the age of seventeen who is about to be brought before a juvenile court under section 66 of the principal Act.