# Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, Section 12: Presumption of age


(1) This section applies where—
(a) a relevant authority has reasonable grounds to believe that a person may be a victim of an offence of human trafficking, and
(b) the authority is not certain of the person's age but has reasonable grounds to believe that the person may be a child.
(2) Until an assessment of the person's age is carried out by a local authority, or the person's age is otherwise determined, the relevant authority must assume that the person is a child for the purposes of exercising its functions under the relevant enactments.
(3) The “relevant enactments” are—
(a) an enactment which applies to a child who is looked after by a local authority within the meaning of section 17(6)(a) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (child for whom a local authority is providing accommodation),
(b) section 22 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (promotion by a local authority of welfare of children in need),
(c) section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (provision by a local authority of accommodation for children),
(d) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(e) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(f) section 11.
(4) In this section, “relevant authority” means—
(a) a Health Board constituted under section 2(1) of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, and
(b) a local authority.
(5) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations modify subsections (3) and (4).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2015/12/section/12 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/human-trafficking-and-exploitation-scotland-act-2015/section-12
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.