199Power of court to call witnesses

1. In any proceedings in a court under Part 2 or Part 3A (not being proceedings for a care or protection order on the ground specified in section 14(1)(e)) the court may, of its own motion, call as a witness any person whose evidence may, in its opinion, be of assistance to the court.

2. The power conferred by subsection (1) shall include power to call as a witness any parent or guardian or other person having the care of the child or young person to whom the proceedings relate, or any person with whom any parent or guardian or other person is cohabiting, or any near relative of the child or young person.

3. A witness called by the court under this section shall have the same privilege to refuse to answer any question as the witness would have if the witness had been called by a party to the proceedings.

4. A witness called by the court under this section may be examined and re-examined by the court, or by any barrister or solicitor assisting the court, and may be cross-examined by or on behalf of any party to the proceedings or by any barrister or solicitor or lay advocate appointed to represent a child or young person to whom the proceedings relate.

5. Sections 159 and 161 to 165 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011, so far as they are applicable and with the necessary modifications, shall apply with respect to every person called as a witness by the court under this section as if that person had been called by a party to the proceedings.

6. The expenses of any witness called by the court under this section, in accordance with the prescribed scale of witnesses expenses, shall be paid in the first instance out of a Crown Bank Account from money appropriated by Parliament for the purpose.