12 March 2009
Re P-B (children) (contact: committal) [2009] EWCA Civ 143, [2009] All ER (D) 286 (Feb)
For committal proceedings to be brought to enforce a mandatory order: (i) a person or body must be required by a judgment or order to do an act within the time fixed by the order or any subsequent order, and (ii) the person or body must have refused or neglected to do the act within the time fixed by the order. A contact order made by a county court under s 34 of the Children Act 1989 is enforceable by committal for contempt of court, and the court has jurisdiction to attach to a penal notice directed to the local authority in whose care the relevant child was.
