The Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995

28.  For section 53 (notices of charges against and applications relating to children and young persons) substitute the following section—

“53.    Notices of charges against children and young persons.

(1) Where a child or young person is to be brought before a court in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by him, the complainant shall as soon as reasonably practicable notify the day and hour when, and the nature of the charge on which, the child or young person is to be brought before the court—

(a) to a probation officer appointed for or assigned to the petty sessions district in which the court will sit; and

(b) to the appropriate authority.

(2) Subsection (1)(b) shall not apply where the complainant is the appropriate authority.

(3) Where the appropriate authority receives a notification under subsection (1) or itself charges any child or young person with any offence, it shall, except in cases which appear to it to be of a trivial nature, make such investigations and render available to the court such information as to the home surroundings, school record, physical and mental health and character of the child or young person and, in proper cases, as to the availability of accommodation at training schools, as appears to the authority to be likely to assist the court.

(4) The appropriate authority shall be under no obligation under subsection (3) to make investigations as to the home surroundings of children or young persons in any petty sessions district in which arrangements have been made for such investigations to be made by a probation officer.

(5) In this section “the appropriate authority” means the authority within whose area the child or young person is ordinarily resident or, if that is not known, the authority within whose area the child or young person is, and “authority” and “area” have the same meaning as in the Children Order.”.