The 1996 Hague Convention

New guidance for local authorities to deal with cross-border child protection cases

On 6 January 2020 the DfE issued new guidance for local authorities to deal with cross-border child protection cases. The new guidance is required because, for countries in the EU, these issues would previously have been dealt with under a European Regulation (‘Brussels IIa’). With the UK’s departure from the EU this is no longer available and so cases will be dealt with under the Hague Convention. In fairness, this is the international treaty which has always been used for most non-EU countries anyway. The states of the EU are also members of the Hague Convention. The Hague Convention is very similar, but not identical, to Brussels IIa and so there will be differences in practice in these cases.

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