School Attendance Act, 1926

Miscellaneous provisions as to prosecutions under the Act.

18.—(1) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act, the court before which the prosecution is brought may, on the application of the prosecutor or the person prosecuted or on its own motion, order the parent of the child to whom the prosecution relates to produce such child before the court at a specified time and place, and in the event of such parent failing so to produce such child the court may inflict on such parent a fine not exceeding twenty shillings.

(2) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act the burden of proof of any of the following matters in relation to the child to whom the prosecution relates shall lie on the person prosecuted, that is to say:—

(a) the age of the child,

(b) that there was a reasonable excuse for the non-attendance of the child at a school in accordance with this Act on any particular day or during any particular period,

(c) that the child is receiving suitable elementary education in some manner other than by attending a national or other suitable school.

(3) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act, a certificate purporting to be signed by the principal teacher of a national or other suitable school stating that the child to whom the prosecution relates is or is not attending that school or stating that such child did or did not attend that school on particular days shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence of such of the matters aforesaid as are stated in such certificate.

(4) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act, a certificate purporting to be signed by a duly qualified medical practitioner that the child to whom the prosecution relates is or was at any specified time suffering from a specified physical or mental malady or injury and that such malady or injury was of such a nature as to render the child unfit to attend school, or that some person residing in the house in which such child resides is or was suffering from a specified physical or mental malady or injury shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence of such of the facts aforesaid as are stated in such certificate.

(5) In any prosecution for an offence under this Act the court may order the costs incurred in relation to such prosecution by the prosecutor or the person prosecuted to be paid by the person prosecuted or the prosecutor (as the case may require) and may fix the amount of such costs.

(6) A prosecution for an offence under this Act may in a school attendance area situate in a county borough or urban district mentioned in the Schedule to this Act, be prosecuted at the suit of any school attendance officer in the area as prosecutor, and may in any other school attendance area, be prosecuted at the suit of the enforcing authority of the area as prosecutor.