Commentary on Sections Part 9 – Parenting Orders Section 111 – Restriction on reporting proceedings relating to parenting orders
246.Section 111 makes it a criminal offence to publish, anywhere in the world, matters in respect of proceedings relating to parenting orders which are intended, or likely to, identify the parent, their address, the child concerned or any other child as specified at subsection 1(d), including information in respect of a relevant child’s address or school.
247.Subsection (2) provides that a court may, in the interests of justice, order that the restriction on publicity provided for in subsection (1) shall not apply.
248.Subsection (5) provides that Section 46 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 applies to proceedings in relation to parenting orders only in respect of persons who are witnesses in such proceedings. Section 46 of the 1937 Act provides that a court may direct that no reports which identify parties under the age of 17 to any proceedings (including witnesses) may be made. The application of section 46 of the 1937 Act to witnesses in parenting order proceedings allows a court to protect child witnesses. Children involved in any other capacity are protected by the other provisions of section 111.
249.Subsection (6) provides that a child in whose interest a parenting order has been made shall be regarded as a person who falls within subsection (1)(a) of section 47 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 for the purposes of the application of that section to proceedings for breach of a Parenting Order under section 107(1). Section 47(1)(a) of the 1995 Act provides that where a person under the age of 16 is a person in respect of whom proceedings are taken then no newspaper report of the proceedings shall identify that child. The effect of subsection (6) is that reports of proceedings for breach of a parenting order may not identify, or contain information calculated to identify, the child in whose interest the parenting order was originally granted.