Do police need court permission to interview a ward of court, asks David Burrows
- Amendments to practice direction PD12D to confirm the law on interview of a ward.
In Re a Ward of Court [2017] EWHC 1022 (Fam), [2017] Fam Law 725, Sir James Munby P considered whether the police needed court permission to interview a child who was a ward of court. He considered the law and answered, No; but he went on to recommend that Family Procedure Rules 2010 PD12D—which said the opposite to what he had decided—should be reviewed and subjected to ‘surgery’.
Radical surgery
Within a few weeks of the judgment Family Procedure Rules Committee (FPRC) and Ministry of Justice officials with the president had amended PD12D. By reference to principles laid down in two cases— Re F (orse A) (a Minor) (Publication of Information) [1977] Fam 58, [1976] 3 WLR 813, CA , and A v Liverpool City Council and anor [1982] AC 363 [1981] 2 WLR 948, (1981) 2 FLR 222—both of which contain important judgments by Scarman (LJ and Lord respectively), and thanks
