{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/family-proceedings-courts-constitution-rules-1991/article-5",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/family-proceedings-courts-constitution-rules-1991/article-5.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1991/1405",
  "legislation_title": "The Family Proceedings Courts (Constitution) Rules 1991",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/family-proceedings-courts-constitution-rules-1991",
  "path": "article/5",
  "kind": "article",
  "number": "5",
  "heading": "Eligibility and removal",
  "text": "(1) A justice shall not be appointed to a panel unless–\n(a) he is a justice of the petty sessions area for which the panel is being formed;\n(b) he has acted as a justice for a minimum period of one year;\n(c) he has indicated that he is willing to serve as a member of the panel; and\n(d) where he is appointed under rule 4(1), he will not attain the age of 70 years during the term of his appointment and has undertaken that he intends to serve as a member of the panel for the full term of the appointment.\n(2) A justice shall be eligible for appointment to a panel whether or not he–\n(a) has been a member of that panel before, or\n(b) is, or has been, a member of any other panel.\n(3) A stipendiary magistrate who has been nominated by the Lord Chancellor to hear family proceedings shall be a member of any panel for a petty sessions area or areas which is situated in the commission area or areas to which he is appointed and every such nomination shall be for a specified period and shall be revocable by the Lord Chancellor.\n(4) The Lord Chancellor may remove from a panel any justice who, in the Lord Chancellor’s opinion, is unsuitable to serve on a family proceedings court.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [
    {
      "type": "words substituted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2006/680",
      "affecting_title": "The Lord Chancellor (Transfer of Functions and Supplementary Provisions) Order 2006"
    },
    {
      "type": "inserted",
      "affecting": "uksi/2006/680",
      "affecting_title": "The Lord Chancellor (Transfer of Functions and Supplementary Provisions) Order 2006"
    },
    {
      "type": "rule 5(4) substituted for rule 5(4)(5)",
      "affecting": "uksi/2006/680",
      "affecting_title": "The Lord Chancellor (Transfer of Functions and Supplementary Provisions) Order 2006"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1991/1405/article/5",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T14:42:39.702744+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}