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(1)Courts of summary jurisdiction constituted in accordance with the provisions of the next following section shall sit so often as is necessary for the following purposes, that is to say—
(i)to hear charges against children and young persons;
(ii)to hear proceedings under section seventy of the [35 & 36 Vict. c. 62.] Education (Scotland) Act, 1872, or under section four of the [56 & 57 Vict. c. 12.] Day Industrial Schools (Scotland) Act, 1893;
(iii)to exercise any other jurisdiction conferred on juvenile courts by this or any other Act;
and such courts so constituted and sitting for any such purpose shall be known as juvenile courts and, in whatever place sitting, shall for the purposes of such charges and proceedings have the like jurisdiction as the sheriff sitting as a court of summary jurisdiction, but as regards power to award imprisonment, to impose a fine or to ordain the finding of caution and in all other respects shall be deemed to be justice of the peace courts of summary jurisdiction.
A charge made jointly against a child or young person and a person who has attained the age of seventeen years shall not, for the purposes of this section, be treated as a charge against a child or young person.
(2)Subject as hereinafter provided no such charge or proceeding as is mentioned in the last foregoing subsection shall be heard by a court of summary jurisdiction which is not a juvenile court :
Provided that—
(i)this subsection shall not apply where a child or young person is charged with an offence, and a person who has attained the age of seventeen years is charged at the same time with aiding, abetting, causing, procuring, allowing or permitting that offence; and
(ii)nothing in this subsection shall affect the power of the Lord Advocate to order proceedings to be taken in the High Court of Justiciary or the sheriff court on any such charge as aforesaid.
(3)A juvenile court shall have jurisdiction to make an adoption order under the [20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 37.] Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act, 1930, if either the applicant or the child resides at the date of the application within the area for which the court acts, and the provisions of the said Act shall apply as regards the juvenile court in like manner as they apply as regards the sheriff court.
(4)(a)This section shall not apply except in any area (being a county or a part of a county) to which the Secretary of State by order under his hand directs that the section shall apply. Any such order may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
(b)In this subsection the expression " county" includes a county of a city, and any burgh (not being a county of a city) shall be deemed to be included in and form part of the county in which it is situated.
(5)In any place in which this section does not apply, any power or duty conferred or imposed on a juvenile court may be exercised or performed by any court of summary jurisdiction having jurisdiction in that place, and the provisions of this Act with regard to juvenile courts (other than those relating to the constitution of such courts) shall apply to any court of summary jurisdiction sitting for the purpose of hearing any such charge or proceeding as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, and as regards any such place the expression " juvenile court" shall mean a court of summary jurisdiction sitting for such purpose.
(1)Subject to the provisions of the next following subsection, a panel of justices specially qualified for dealing with juvenile cases shall be formed for the purposes of this Act in every area in which section fifty of this Act applies, and no justice shall be qualified to sit as a member of a juvenile court unless he is a member of such a panel.
(2)The Secretary of State, after considering any representations made to him by the justices for any such areas as aforesaid, may by order direct that there shall be only one panel for any two or more such areas and may by the same or a subsequent order provide for sittings of juvenile courts constituted from that panel being held at such places, whether within or without the area for which the court is for the time being acting, as may be specified in the order.
An order under this subsection may contain such supplemental, incidental and consequential provisions as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or proper for the purposes of the order, and may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
(3)Rules made by the Lord Chancellor shall provide—
(a)for the formation and periodical revision of panels of justices;
(b)for limiting the number of justices who may sit as members of any juvenile court, and for the manner in which they are to be selected;
(c)for one of the justices acting as chairman of the court and for the manner in which the chairman is to be selected.
(4)Any rule purporting to be made by the Lord Chancellor under this section shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after it is made, if Parliament be then sitting, or if Parliament be not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the next Session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed.
(1)A juvenile court shall, subject as hereinafter provided, sit either in a different building or room from that in which sittings of courts other than juvenile courts are held, or on different days from those on which sittings of such other courts are held; and no person shall be present at any sitting of a juvenile court except—
(a)members and officers of the court;
(b)parties to the case before the court, their solicitors and counsel, and witnesses and other persons directly concerned in that case;
(c)bona fide representatives of newspapers or news agencies;
(d)such other persons as the court may specially authorise to be present.
(2)The Lord Justice General may make rules for regulating the procedure in juvenile courts, and such of the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Acts as regulate procedure shall have effect subject to any rules so made.
(1)A juvenile court sitting for the purpose of hearing a charge against, or an application relating to, a person who is believed to be a child or young person may, if it thinks fit to do so, proceed with the hearing and determination of the charge or application, notwithstanding that it is discovered that the person in question is not a child or young person.
(2)Where in the course of any proceedings in any court of summary jurisdiction other than a juvenile court it appears that the person charged or to whom the proceedings relate is under the age of seventeen years, nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act shall be construed as preventing the court, if it thinks fit so to do, from proceeding with the hearing and determination of those proceedings.
(3)Where the court before which any person is bound by his bond under the [7 Edw. 7. c. 17.] Probation of Offenders Act, 1907, to appear is a juvenile court, the attainment by him of the age of seventeen years shall not deprive that court of jurisdiction to enforce his attendance and deal with him in respect of any failure to observe the conditions of his bond or of jurisdiction to vary or discharge the bond.
(4)When a juvenile court has remanded a child or young person for information to be obtained with respect to him, any juvenile court acting for the same place—
(a)may in his absence extend the period for which he is remanded, so, however, that he appears before a court or a justice at least once in every twenty-one days;
(b)when the required information has been obtained, may deal with him finally;
and where the court by which he was originally remanded has recorded a finding that he is guilty of an offence charged against him, it shall not be necessary for any court which subsequently deals with him under this subsection to hear evidence as to the commission of that offence, except in so far as it may consider that such evidence will assist the court in determining the manner in which he should be dealt with.
(5)No direction, whether contained in this or any other Act, that a charge shall be brought before a juvenile court, shall be construed as restricting the powers of any justice or justices to entertain an application for bailor for a remand, and to hear such evidence as may be necessary for that purpose.
(1)Subject as hereinafter provided, no newspaper report of any proceedings in a juvenile court shall reveal the name, address or school, or include any particulars calculated to lead to the identification, of any child or young person concerned in those proceedings, either as being the person against or in respect of whom the proceedings are taken or as being a witness therein, nor shall any picture be published in any newspaper as being or including a picture of any child or young person so concerned in any such proceedings as aforesaid :
Provided that the court or the Secretary of State may in any case, if satisfied that it is in the interests of justice so to do, by order dispense with the requirements of this section to such extent as may be specified in the order.
(2)Any person who publishes any matter in contravention of this section shall on summary conviction be liable in respect of each offence to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.
It shall be conclusively presumed that no child under the age of eight years can be guilty of any offence.
(1)A child shall not be ordered to be imprisoned or be sent to penal servitude for any offence, or be committed to prison in default of payment of a fine, damages, or expenses.
(2)A young person shall not be sent to penal servitude for any offence.
(3)A young person shall not be ordered to be imprisoned for an offence, or be committed to prison in default of payment of a fine, damages, or expenses, unless the court certifies that he is of so unruly a character that he cannot be detained in a remand home or that he is of so depraved a character that he is not a fit person to be so detained.
(1)Sentence of death shall not be pronounced on or recorded against a person under the age of eighteen years, but in lieu thereof the court shall sentence him to be detained during His Majesty's pleasure, and, if so sentenced, he shall, notwithstanding anything in the other provisions of this Act, be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct.
(2)Where a child or young person is convicted on indictment of an attempt to murder, or of culpable homicide, or of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and the court is of opinion that none of the other methods in which the case may legally be dealt with is suitable, the court may sentence the offender to be detained for such period as may be specified in the sentence; and where such a sentence has been passed, the child or young person shall, during that period, notwithstanding anything in the other provisions of this Act, be liable to be detained in such place and on such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct.
(3)A person detained pursuant to the directions of the Secretary of State under this section shall, while so detained, be deemed to be in legal custody.
(4)Any person so detained as aforesaid may, at any time, be discharged by the Secretary of State on licence.
Such a licence may be in such form and may contain such conditions as the Secretary of State may direct, and may at any time be revoked or varied by the Secretary of State.
Where a licence has been revoked, the person to whom the licence related shall return to such place as the Secretary of State may direct, and if he fails to do so may be apprehended without warrant and taken to that place.
Where a child or young person is found guilty of an offence punishable in the case of an adult with penal servitude or imprisonment, or where a child or young person would, if he were an adult, be liable to be imprisoned in default of payment of any fine, damages, or expenses, the court may, if it considers that none of the other methods by which the case may legally be dealt with is suitable, order that he be committed to custody in a remand home named in the order for such term as may be specified in the order, not exceeding the term for which he might, but for this Act, be ordered to be imprisoned or committed to prison, nor in any case exceeding one month.
(1)Where a child or young person is charged with an offence for the commission of which a fine, damages, or expenses may be imposed or awarded, if the court is of opinion that the case would be best met by the imposition or award of a fine, damages, or expenses, whether with or without any other punishment, the court may in any case, and shall if the offender is a child, order that the fine, damages, or expenses imposed or awarded be paid by the parent or guardian of the child or young person instead of by the child or young person, unless the court is satisfied that the parent or guardian cannot be found or that he has not conduced to the commission of the offence by neglecting to exercise due care of the child or young person.
(2)In the case of a child or young person charged with any offence, the court may order his parent or guardian to give security for his good behaviour.
(3)An order under this section may be made against a parent or guardian who, having been required to attend, has failed to do so, but, save as aforesaid, no such order shall be made without giving the parent or guardian an opportunity of being heard.
(4)Any sums ordered under this section, or on forfeiture of any such security as aforesaid, to be paid by a parent or guardian may be recovered from him by civil diligence or imprisonment in like manner as if the order had been made on the conviction of the parent or guardian of the offence with which the child or young person was charged.
(1)Any court by or before which a child or young person is found guilty of an offence other than homicide, may, if it thinks fit, remit the case to a juvenile court acting for the place where the offender was committed for trial, or, if he was not committed for trial, to a juvenile court acting either for the same place as the remitting court or for the place where the offender resides; and, where any such case is so remitted, the offender shall be brought before a juvenile court accordingly, and that court may deal with him in any way in which it might have dealt with him if he had been tried and found guilty by that court.
(2)No appeal shall lie against an order remitting a case to a juvenile court under this section, but nothing in this subsection shall affect any right of appeal against the verdict or finding on which such an order is founded.
(3)A court by which an order remitting a case to a juvenile court is made under this section may give such directions as appear to be necessary with respect to the custody of the offender or for his liberation on bail until he can be brought before the juvenile court, and shall cause to be transmitted to the clerk of the juvenile court a certificate setting out the nature of the offence and stating that the offender has been found guilty thereof, and that the case has been remitted for the purpose of being dealt with under this section.
(1)Any court by or before which a child or young person is found guilty of an offence punishable in the case of an adult with imprisonment shall, in addition to any other powers exercisable by virtue of this or any other Act, have power—
(a)to order him to be sent to an approved school;
(b)to commit him to the care of a fit person, whether a relative or not, who is willing to undertake the care of him.
(2)Where an order is made under this section committing a child or young person to the care of a fit person, a probation order may also be made under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907.
The Secretary of State may by order direct that—
(a)a person who is under the age of eighteen years and is undergoing detention in a Borstal institution; or
(b)a child or young person with respect to whom he is authorised to give directions under subsection (2) of section fifty-seven of this Act; or
(c)a young person who has been ordered to be imprisoned and has been pardoned by His Majesty on condition of his agreeing to undergo training in a school,
shall be transferred or sent to and detained in an approved school specified in the order; and any such order shall be an authority for the detention of the person to whom it relates until such date as may be specified in the order:
Provided that the date to be so specified shall be not later than that on which he will in the opinion of the Secretary of State attain the age of nineteen years nor later—
(a)in the case of a person who was undergoing detention in a Borstal institution, or was sentenced to detention under the said subsection (2), than the date on which his detention would have expired; or
(b)in the case of a young person who has been ordered to be imprisoned and has been pardoned as aforesaid, than three years from the date as from which the order for his imprisonment began to run.
(1)The words " conviction " and " sentence " shall cease to be used in relation to children and young persons dealt with summarily and any reference in any enactment to a person convicted, a conviction or a sentence shall, in the case of a child or young person, be construed as including a reference to a person found guilty of an offence, a finding of guilt or an order made upon such a finding, as the case may be.
(2)Where a child or young person is himself ordered by a court of summary jurisdiction to pay expenses in addition to a fine, the amount of the expenses so ordered to be paid shall in no case exceed the amount of the fine.
(3)In addition to any other register required by law, a separate register of juvenile offenders found guilty of offences and of juvenile offenders discharged on bond or put on probation under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907, shall be kept for every summary court by the chief constable or other person charged with the duty of keeping registers of convictions. The register shall apply to offenders of such age, and shall include such particulars, as may be directed by the Secretary of State, and it shall be the duty of the keeper of the register, within seven days after any such offender has been dealt with by the court, to transmit a copy of the entry relating to the offender to the education authority for the area in which the offender resides.
(1)In subsection (5) of section six of the [29 & 30 Vict. c. 118.] Probation of Offenders Act, 1907 (which, as it applies to Scotland, relates to the powers of the court in a case where a person bound by a bond under the said subsection has failed to observe a condition of the bond) for the words " if the case was one in which the court in the first " instance might, under section fifteen of the Industrial " Schools Act, 1866, have ordered the offender to be " sent to a certified industrial school and the offender " is still apparently under the age of twelve years," there shall be substituted the words " if the case was one " in which the court had power to make an order sending " him to an approved school, and he is still under the " age of seventeen."
(2)Notwithstanding anything in subsection (2) of section two of the said Act (as amended by section eight of the [4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 58.] Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914) it shall not be made a condition of a bond under the said Act that a child or young person shall reside in any institution which is not subject to inspection by the Secretary of State unless he is while residing in the institution to be employed, or to seek employment, outside it.
(3)Where it is made a condition of a bond under the said Act that a child or young person shall reside in any institution, the court by which the probation order is made shall forthwith give notice of the terms of the order to the Secretary of State.
(4)Where the residence of a child or young person in any institution has been made a condition of a bond under the said Act, the Secretary of State may at any time, if he considers that it is in the interests of the child or young person so to do, cause an application to be made to the court before which the child, or young person is bound by his bond to appear, and thereupon that court may vary the conditions of the bond by excluding therefrom the condition as to residence, or by substituting the name of some other institution.
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