Commentary on Sections Schedule 27 - Minor and consequential amendments Paragraphs 64 and 65 - Magistrate’s Courts Act 1980 (c. 43)
974.Section 59 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980 sets out the powers of a magistrates’ court to determine the means by which certain periodical payments are made. Subsection (7) sets out certain cases where the court must order that payments be made to the designated officer for a magistrates’ court unless satisfied that it is undesirable to do so. Paragraph 64 makes amendments to add orders made under Schedule 6 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (financial relief in magistrates’ courts etc.) to the list of maintenance orders to which subsection (7) applies. This ensures that maintenance orders under Schedule 6 to the Civil Partnership Act are treated in the same way as maintenance orders under Part I of the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates’ Courts Act 1978.
975.Paragraph 65 amends the definition of family proceedings in section 65 of the 1980 Act extending the definition to cover certain proceedings under Schedules 2, 5 and 6 to the Civil Partnership Act. These amendments are consequential upon the creation of the relationship of civil partner and upon the classification of proceedings arising from civil partnerships as family proceedings.