Children (Amendment) Act, 1957

Notices to be given by persons receiving children for reward.

2.—(1) Where a person undertakes, for reward or promise of reward, the nursing and maintenance of one or more children under the age of sixteen years apart from their parents or having no parents, he shall, at least seven days before the reception of any such child, give notice in writing thereof to the health authority.

(2) Where a person or body makes arrangements for the nursing and maintenance for reward of any such child by another person, that person or body shall, at least seven days before the reception of the child, give notice in writing thereof to the health authority. This requirement shall not relieve the person receiving the child from the obligation of complying with subsection (1).

(3) Where a person undertakes, for reward or promise of reward, the nursing and maintenance of a child under the said age already in his care without reward, the entering into the undertaking shall, for the purposes of Part I of the Principal Act, be treated as a reception of the child, but in such case the notice required by subsection (1) may be given at any time before or within forty-eight hours after such reception.

(4) The notice shall state the name, sex, and date and place of birth of the child, the name of the person receiving the child, and the dwelling within which the child is about to be or is being kept, and the name and address of the person from whom the child is about to be or has been received.

(5) (a) If a person who has undertaken the nursing and maintenance of any such child changes his residence, he shall, at least forty-eight hours before making such change, give to the health authority notice in writing of such change, and where the residence to which he moves is situate in the district of another health authority, he shall give to that health authority the like notice as respects each child in his care as he is by this section required to give on the first reception of the child.

(b) Where, however, such change of residence is made suddenly by necessity arising from an unforeseen emergency, the notices required by this subsection may be given at any time within forty-eight hours after such change of residence.

(6) (a) If any such child dies or is removed from the care of the person who has undertaken its nursing and maintenance, that person shall, within twenty-four hours after such death or at least forty-eight hours before such removal (as the case may be), give to the health authority notice in writing of such death or removal, and in the latter case also of the name and address of the person to whose care the child is about to be transferred.

(b) Where, however, such removal is made suddenly by necessity arising from an unforeseen emergency, the notice may be given at any time within twenty-four hours after such removal.

(7) This section shall apply to an individual undertaking the nursing and maintenance of an illegitimate child without reward and to the making of arrangements for such nursing and maintenance as it applies in relation to nursing and maintenance for reward.

(8) If any person required to give a notice under this section fails to give the notice within the time or before the latest time specified for giving the notice, he shall be guilty of an offence under Part I of the Principal Act, and, if the child in respect of whom notice ought to have been given was a child the consideration for whose nursing and maintenance consisted in whole or in part of a lump sum, the person failing to give the notice shall, in addition to any other penalty under Part I of the Principal Act, be liable to forfeit that sum or such less sum as the court having cognizance of the case may deem just, and the sum forfeited shall be applied for the benefit of the child in such manner as the court may direct, and where any such sum is ordered to be forfeited the order may be enforced as if it were an order of the court made on complaint.

(9) For the purpose of any enactment by which the time for taking proceedings is limited, the offence created by subsection (8) of failing to give a notice shall be deemed to continue so long as the child in respect of whom such notice ought to have been given remains, without such notice being given, in the care of the person by whom such notice ought to have been given.

(10) Where a child who is illegitimate is kept and maintained in such circumstances that the notices mentioned in this section would be required to be given if such keeping and maintenance were done for reward, the child shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to be so kept and maintained for reward.

(11) References in Part I of the Principal Act to infants shall, in consequence of the foregoing provisions, be construed as references to children under the age of sixteen years.

(12) This section is in lieu of section 1 of the Principal Act, as amended by section 3 of the Act of 1934, which sections are repealed by this Act and references in the Principal Act to the said section 1 shall be construed as references to this section.