s 31 Power to make interim orders
31.—(1) Subject to subsection (3), in any adoption proceedings before a court, the court may make an interim order giving the custody and care and control of the child before the court to the joint applicants or sole applicant (as the case may be) for a period not exceeding 2 years. (2) An interim order under subsection (1) may be made upon any terms as regards provision for the maintenance and education and the supervision of the welfare of the child and otherwise that the court thinks fit. (3) The court must not make an interim order under subsection (1) unless the consent of every relevant person of the child before the court has either been validly obtained in accordance with section 26 or dispensed with by the court. (4) An interim order under subsection (1) may be made in respect of a child who has already been the subject of an adoption order (including under the repealed Act) and, upon any application for a further adoption order, the adoptive parents or adoptive parent (as the case may be) under the adoption order last previously made are or is, if living, deemed to be the parents or parent of the child for the purposes of this Act.