Guidance

Practice Direction update 3 (2021): new pilot Practice Direction 36W

Pilot Practice Direction 36W brings in new provision for communicating forced marriage and female genital mutilation protection orders to the police. It came into force on 26 April 2021.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

PD making document - Pilot Practice Direction 3 of 2021

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Details

Practice Direction 36W (Pilot Scheme: Procedure for notification of certain protection orders to the police by email) comes into effect on 26 April 2021 for one year.

It replaces previous Practice Direction 36H to bring in new provision for communicating Forced Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FMPOs and FGMPOs) to the police.

It includes:

  • details of the centralised police email address
  • a template for sending key details to the email address

It requires

  • the court to send notification of the existence of a FMPO or FGMPO once made and sealed by the court
  • applicants, or the court where the court is to effect service of a FMPO or FGMPO, to email the mailbox once the order has been served on the respondent, or the respondent has otherwise been made aware of the terms of the order

When an email is received at the centralised email address, an automated system will forward the FGMPO or FMPO (or the notification of service/ the respondent having been made aware of the terms of the order) to the local and regional police lead for the address of the person to be protected by the FGMPO or FMPO. If the court has directed that the local and regional police lead for the address of the respondent to the FGMPO or FMPO also be notified, then the automated system will do so.

This process only applies where the address of the applicant (or the respondent, where applicable) is in England and Wales. Further guidance is available, and applicants can obtain the template for notification of service of an order from court staff.

Updates to this page

Published 29 April 2021

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