Part IV Care and Supervision

Guardians ad litem

42F1Right of officer of the Service to have access to local authority records

(1)

Where F2an officer of the ServiceF3or Welsh family proceedings officer has been appointed F4under section 41 he shall have the right at all reasonable times to examine and take copies of—

(a)

any records of, or held by, a local authority F5or an authorised personwhich were compiled in connection with the making, or proposed making, by any person of any application under this Act with respect to the child concerned; F6. . .

(b)

any F6. . . records of, or held by, a local authority which were compiled in connection with any functions which F7are social services functions within the meaning of the M1Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, so far as those records relate to that child.

F8; or

(c)

any records of, or held by, an authorised person which were compiled in connection with the activities of that person, so far as those records relate to that child.

(2)

Where F9an officer of the ServiceF3or Welsh family proceedings officer takes a copy of any record which he is entitled to examine under this section, that copy or any part of it shall be admissible as evidence of any matter referred to in any—

(a)

report which he makes to the court in the proceedings in question; or

(b)

evidence which he gives in those proceedings.

(3)

Subsection (2) has effect regardless of any enactment or rule of law which would otherwise prevent the record in question being admissible in evidence.

F10(4)

In this section “authorised person” has the same meaning as in section 31.