Section 31 and its associated emergency and interim provisions comprise the only court mechanism available to a local authority to protect a child from risk. The interpretation of the ‘attributable’ condition adopted by the House of Lords is necessary to avoid the unacceptable consequence that, if the court cannot identify which of a child’s carers is responsible for inflicting injuries the child will remain wholly unprotected. This would render the statutory provisions ineffective to deal with a commonplace aspect of child protection. The interpretation adopted by the House of Lords avoids this result while, at the same time, encroaching to the minimum extent necessary on the general principle underpinning the section.
Judges:
Wall J
Citations:
[1999] 1 WLR 238
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – In re O and N (Minors); In re B (Minors) (Care: Preliminary hearing) HL 3-Apr-2003
The appeals were from conflicting decisions in care applications where one or other or both parents were guilty of lack of care, but there was no evidence to say which was responsible.
Held: The threshold criteria had been met, and the court . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Children
Updated: 05 April 2022; Ref: scu.180420
