The Treatment of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1989

Attendance centre orders

5.—(1) In section 76 of the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968(1) (power of court to make orders against parents) after subsection (2) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(2A) Where the court makes an order under section 135(1) in respect of any child or young person, it may order his parent or guardian to enter into a recognizance as security for his compliance with that order.”.

(2) In section 135 of that Act (attendance centre orders)—

(a) subsection (4) (order not to be made where a person has previously been sentenced to imprisonment or detention) shall cease to have effect;

(b) at the end of that section there shall be added the following subsections—

“(6) A court may make an order under subsection (1) in respect of an offender before a previous order under that subsection in respect of him has ceased to have effect, and may determine the number of hours to be specified in the order without regard—

(a) to the number specified in the previous order; or

(b) to the fact that that order is still in effect.

(7) Where a court makes an order under subsection (1), the clerk of the court shall serve a copy of the order on—

(a) the officer in charge of the attendance centre specified therein; and

(b) on the offender.

(8) Where a person has been ordered to attend at an attendance centre in default of the payment of any sum of money, then—

(a) on payment of the whole sum to any person authorised to receive it, the order shall cease to have effect;

(b) on the payment of a part of the sum to any such person, the total number of hours for which the offender is required to attend at the centre shall be reduced proportionately, that is to say by such number of complete hours as bears to the total number the proportion most nearly approximating to, without exceeding, the proportion which the part paid bears to the said sum.”.

(3) For section 136 of that Act (provisions supplementary to section 135) there shall be substituted the following section—

“136.    Discharge, revocation or variation of orders under section 135(1).

(1) A court of summary jurisdiction may, on an application made by complaint by the offender or by the officer in charge of the attendance centre specified in an order under section 135(1)—

(a) discharge the order; or

(b) vary the day or hour specified therein for the offender’s first attendance at the centre;

and where the application is made by the said officer, the court may deal with it without summoning the offender.

(2) Where an order under section 135(1) has been made and it appears upon a complaint made to a justice of the peace that the offender—

(a) has failed to attend in accordance with the order; or

(b) while attending at the centre has committed a breach of the rules made under section 134(2) which cannot be adequately dealt with under those rules;

the justice may—

(i) issue a summons directed to that person requiring him to appear before a juvenile court for the petty sessions district in which that person resides or in which the attendance centre specified in the order is situated; or

(ii) if the complaint is in writing and on oath, issue a warrant for that person’s arrest requiring him to be brought before such a court.

(3) If it appears to the satisfaction of the court before which an offender appears or is brought under subsection (2) that—

(a) he has failed without reasonable excuse to attend as mentioned in paragraph (a) of that subsection; or

(b) he has committed such a breach of rules as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of that subsection,

that court may revoke the order under section 135(1) and deal with him in any manner in which he could have been dealt with by the court which made the order, if the order had not been made.

(4) Where a person in respect of whom an order under section 135(1) is in effect is convicted by a court of an offence, the court may—

(a) revoke the order under section 135(1); and

(b) in passing sentence for the offence take into account the number of hours which, but for the revocation, the offender would have had to attend at an attendance centre to comply with the order.

(5) The discharge, variation or revocation under this section of an order under section 135(1) shall be by order of the court, and where a court makes an order under this section the clerk of the court shall serve a copy of the order on—

(a) the officer in charge of the attendance centre specified in the order under section 135(1) which is discharged, varied or revoked; and

(b) the offender.”.

(1)

1968 c. 34 (N.I.)