Family Law Reform Act 1987

Financial provision for child resident in country outside England and Wales. E+W

15A (1) Where one parent of a child resides in England and Wales and the other parent and the child reside outside England and Wales, the court shall have power, on an application made by that other parent, to make one or both of the orders mentioned in section 11B(2)(a) and (b) of this Act against the parent resident in England and Wales; and in relation to such an application section 11B(2)(a) and (b) shall have effect as if for any reference to the parent excluded from actual custody there were substituted a reference to the parent resident in England and Wales.

(2) Any reference in this Act to the powers of the court under section 11B(2) of this Act or to an order made under the said section 11B(2) shall include a reference to the powers which the court has by virtue of subsection (1) above or, as the case may be, to an order made by virtue of subsection (1) above.

Appeals and procedure. 16. (3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, where on an application to a magistrates’ court under this Act the court makes or refuses to make an order, an appeal shall lie to the High Court.

(4) Where an application is made to a magistrates’ court under this Act, and the court considers that the matter is one which would more conveniently be dealt with by the High Court, the magistrates’ court shall refuse to make an order, and in that case no appeal shall lie to the High Court.

(5) In relation to applications made to a magistrates’ court under section 14A of this Act regarding access to a child by a grandparent or under section 3(3) or 4(3A) of the M1 Guardianship Act 1973 for the discharge or variation of a supervision order or, as the case may be, an order giving the care of a child to a local authority or an order requiring payments to be made to an authority to whom care of a child is so given, rules made under section 144 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 may make provision as to the persons who are to be made defendants on the application; and if on any such application there are two or more defendants, the power of the court under section 64(1) of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 shall be deemed to include power, whatever adjudication the court makes on the complaint, to order any of the parties to pay the whole part of the costs of all or any of the other parties.

(6) On an appeal under subsection (3) of this section the High Court shall have power to make such orders as may be necessary to give effect to its determination of the appeal including such incidental or consequential orders as appear to the court to be just, and, in the case of an appeal from a decision of a magistrates’ court made on an application for or in respect of an order for the making of periodical payments, the High Court shall have power to order that its determination of the appeal shall have effect from such date as the court thinks fit, not being earlier than the date of the making of the application to the magistrates’ court.

(7) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (6) above, where, on an appeal under subsection (3) of this section in respect of an order of a magistrates’ court requiring a parent of a child to make periodical payments, the High Court reduces the amount of those payments or discharges the order, the High Court shall have power to order the person entitled to payments under the order of the magistrates’ court to pay to that parent such sum in respect of payments already made by the parent in compliance with the order as the High Court thinks fit and if any arrears are due under the order of the magistrates’ court, the High Court shall have power to remit the payment of those arrears or any part thereof.

(8) Any order of the High Court made on an appeal under subsection (3) of this section (other than an order directing that an application shall be re-heard by a magistrates’ court) shall for the purposes of the enforcement of the order and for the purposes of any power to vary, revive or discharge orders conferred by section 9(1), 10(1) or (2)(b), 11B(1), 11C(1) or (2)(b), 11D(6), 12B(5) or 12C(2) of this Act or section 3(3) or 4(3A) of the Guardianship Act 1973 be treated as if it were an order of the magistrates’ court from which the appeal was brought and not of the High Court.

Marginal Citations

M1 1973 c.29.