As we head into the next legal term, it is worth noting the pilot scheme that came into effect at the end of July 2018 when some lawyers were downing-tools for a short summer break. The Family Procedure Rules has a new Practice Direction 36H, which sets up a pilot scheme to allow for the following protection orders to be served on the police at a centralised email address:
– Forced marriage protection order under Family Law Act 1996 s63A;
– FGM protection order under Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 under Sch 2, Part 1, para 1(1).
This applies to orders made in the High Court or Family Court between 23 July 2018 and 25 January 2019. Where the court makes a protection order, it must be emailed to the centralised email address created and monitored by the Vulnerability Coordination centre, namely fgm-fm-po@norfolk.pnn.police.uk.
The link to the practice direction on the justice.gov.uk website does not work (it should be here) but the Law Society have a pdf copy of it here.