s 42 Right of officer of the Service to have access to local authority records
(1) Where an officer of the Service or Welsh family proceedings officer has been appointed under section 41 he shall have the right at all reasonable times to examine and take copies of— (a) any records of, or held by, a local authority or an authorised person which were compiled in connection with the making, or proposed making, by any person of any application under this Act with respect to the child concerned; . . . (b) any . . . records of, or held by, a local authority which were compiled in connection with any functions which are social services functions within the meaning of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 or for the purposes of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 , so far as those records relate to that child. ; or (c) any records of, or held by, an authorised person which were compiled in connection with the activities of that person, so far as those records relate to that child. (2) Where an officer of the Service or Welsh family proceedings officer takes a copy of any record which he is entitled to examine under this section, that copy or any part of it shall be admissible as evidence of any matter referred to in any— (a) report which he makes to the court in the proceedings in question; or (b) evidence which he gives in those proceedings. (3) Subsection (2) has effect regardless of any enactment or rule of law which would otherwise prevent the record in question being admissible in evidence. (4) In this section “ authorised person ” has the same meaning as in section 31.