Step Six: How can the Order or Undertaking be enforced?
A breach of an Order or Undertaking is considered contempt of Court and is punishable by, for example, a fine or imprisonment. Sometimes a Court may attach a ‘power of arrest’ to an Order it makes when it is felt that the applicant and children may not be adequately protected without such a power. The effect of the power of arrest is that the Police can arrest the perpetrator if they have reasonable cause to suspect them of being in breach of the Order. Once arrested under this power, the perpetrator must be brought before the Courts within 24 hours. If no power of arrest was attached to the original Order, whoever originally applied for the Order could then apply to the Court for a warrant of arrest to be added.
