Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968

37 Reports of cases of children who may require compulsory measures of care and the interim detention of such children in places of safety

(1) Where any person has reasonable cause to believe that a child may be in need of compulsory measures of care he may give to the reporter such information about the child as he may have been able to discover.

(2) A constable or any person authorised by any court or by any justice of the peace may take to a place of safety any child in respect of whom any of the offences mentioned in Schedule 1 to the [1937 c. 37.] Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 or any offence under section 21(1) of that Act has been or is believed to have been committed, and any child so taken to a place of safety or any child who has taken refuge in a place of safety may be detained there until arrangements can be made for him to be brought before a children's hearing under the following provisions of this Part of this Act, and, where a child is so detained, the constable or the person authorised as aforesaid or the occupier of the place of safety shall forthwith inform the reporter of the case.

(3) A child shall not continue to be detained under the last foregoing subsection—

(a) where the reporter considers the child does not require compulsory measures of care, or

(b) after the day on which a children's hearing first sit to consider his case in pursuance of the next following subsection, or

(c) for a period exceeding seven days.

(4) Where a child has been detained in a place of safety under subsection (2) of this section or under section 40(3) or 47(1) of the said Act of 1937, and the reporter considers that the child may be in need of compulsory measures of care, he shall, wherever practicable, arrange a children's hearing to sit not later than in the course of the first lawful day after the commencement of the child's detention to consider the case under this Part of this Act, and, if that hearing are unable to dispose of the case and are satisfied that his further detention is necessary in his own interest, or have reason to believe that he will run away during the investigation of his case, they may issue a warrant requiring the child to be detained in any place of safety for such a period not exceeding twenty-one days as may be necessary.

(5) On cause shown a warrant authorising detention under the last foregoing subsection may be renewed, on one occasion only, for the period mentioned in that subsection on the application of the reporter.

(6) In this section any reference to a justice of the peace includes a reference to a sheriff and to a magistrate.