Section 16A: Risk assessments

Children Act 1989 · 1989 c. 41View on legislation.gov.uk

Part II: Orders With Respect To Children In Family Proceedings

This section applies to the following functions of officers of the Service or Welsh family proceedings officers—

any function in connection with family proceedings in which the court has power to make an order under this Part with respect to a child or in which a question with respect to such an order arises;
any function in connection with an order made by the court in such proceedings.

If, in carrying out any function to which this section applies, an officer of the Service or a Welsh family proceedings officer is given cause to suspect that the child concerned is at risk of harm, he must—

make a risk assessment in relation to the child, and
provide the risk assessment to the court.

A risk assessment, in relation to a child who is at risk of suffering harm of a particular sort, is an assessment of the risk of that harm being suffered by the child.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.