Section 8: Child arrangements orders and other orders with respect to children.

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

Part II: Orders With Respect To Children In Family Proceedings

In this Act —

  • "child arrangements order" means an order regulating arrangements relating to any of the following—

    (a)with whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact, and

    (b)when a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact with any person;

  • ...

  • "a prohibited steps order" means an order that no step which could be taken by a parent in meeting his parental responsibility for a child, and which is of a kind specified in the order, shall be taken by any person without the consent of the court;

  • ...

  • "a specific issue order" means an order giving directions for the purpose of determining a specific question which has arisen, or which may arise, in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility for a child.

In this Act "a section 8 order" means any of the orders mentioned in subsection (1) and any order varying or discharging such an order.

For the purposes of this Act "family proceedings" means any proceedings—

under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court in relation to children; and
under the enactments mentioned in subsection (4),

but does not include proceedings on an application for leave under section 100(3).

The enactments are—

Parts I, II and IV of this Act;
the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973;
Schedule 5 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004;
the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976;
the Adoption and Children Act 2002;
the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978;
Schedule 6 to the Civil Partnership Act 2004;
sections 1 and 9 of the Matrimonial Homes Act 1983;
Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984;
the Family Law Act 1996;
sections 11 and 12 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;
Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (other than paragraph 3 of that Schedule).
Part 3 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, where the proceedings are in the family court or the Family Division of the High Court.

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.