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Children’s Act 2014

Children's worker safety checking - Defences

30: Defence relating to short-term emergencies

You could also call this:

"A defence for organisations that didn't follow rules in an emergency to keep children safe."

Illustration for Children’s Act 2014

If you are charged with an offence against sections 25 to 28 of the Children's Act 2014, you may have a defence. This defence applies if your organisation thought an emergency had happened, or unexpected conditions had arisen, that increased risks to children. Your organisation must have employed extra children's workers to reduce these risks.

You must have employed these extra workers because of the emergency or unexpected conditions. If some of these workers were not safety checked, they must have been employed for no more than 5 consecutive working days.

This defence is related to sections 25 to 28 of the Children's Act 2014.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5501713.

Topics:
Family and relationships > Children and parentingCrime and justice > Criminal law
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29: Defence of taking all reasonable steps, or

"It's not your fault if you did everything you could to keep people safe"

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31: Requirements of safety checks, or

"Rules for Checking if Someone is Safe to Work with Children"

Part 3Children's worker safety checking
Defences

30Defence relating to short-term emergencies

  1. It is a defence to a charge for an offence against sections 25 to 28 that all the following conditions applied:

  2. the specified organisation considered that an emergency had occurred, or unexpected conditions had arisen, that increased the risks to any children to whom it provides regulated services:
    1. in order to reduce the risks to those children, the organisation employed or engaged additional children's workers:
      1. any of those children's workers who were not safety checked were employed or engaged by the specified organisation for no more than 5 consecutive working days.