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Mr. St. Aubyn: I am sure that we all agree with that. However, does the Minister not agree that there is widespread concern that individual local authorities perhaps provide their own criteria above and beyond what would be normally judged as suitable? Those authorities should bear it mind, in setting criteria for couples who are able to adopt, that there may be couples out there beyond
those who are required for home adoptions who may be very suitable for the particular cases referred to the debate. They should not be unnecessarily excluded.
Mr. Hutton: I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman's attempt to clear up the confusion about his earlier remarks has inadvertently added to that confusion. We take seriously adoption in the UK. As I have said, we want to ensure that it is a mainstream service that is available for children who would benefit from adoption. We have already issued new statutory guidance to local authorities to ensure that that happens.
The hon. Member for Guildford specifically referred to age limits. He seemed to indicate that there was some statutory bar, or upper age limit in relation to adoption. That is not true. The legislation does not contain any statutory upper age limit for prospective adopters. The guidance that has been issued to local authorities rightly draws attention to the fact that, although there is no upper age restriction, age is one consideration among many that needs to be taken into account in assessing the suitability of prospective adopters.
Age is necessarily linked to general health, fitness and emotional well-being. Some older people may score higher in that regard than some younger ones. Therefore, under the guidance that we have issued, adoption agencies are expected to recruit adoptive parents who will have the health and vigour to meet the many and varied demands of children in their growing years and to be there for them into adulthood. I hope that, if the hon. Member for Guildford was under the impression that there was a statutory age limit, he is now reassured that there is not.
The hon. Gentleman asked what would happen if a competent court in one country did not annul an adoption and an equally competent court in another country did. We could have a problem if a court in one country, perhaps the country where the child was born, decides for some reason to rescind, or to annul the adoption order. What implications would that have in the United Kingdom?
Under the convention, proper investigation of the child's background would need to take place. Article 4 would, I hope, preclude situations arising where a child's family is not properly investigated. The circumstance that the hon. Gentleman envisaged might arise where a long-lost relative turned up after adoption has taken place; that was his concern.
We think that the procedures in the convention will make that extremely unlikely. If an adoption is made under the terms of the convention, it may be annulled on the ground of public policy--for example, under article 24, which will be implemented by clause 6.
I think that the hon. Gentleman was concerned about what would happen if the courts of two convention countries reached two different views on an adoption. Under clause 6, if an authority or another convention country annuls an adoption, we would recognise that annulment--as we should have to do under the convention. However, it would be extremely unusual for, and is extremely unlikely that, courts in two convention countries would deal with the suitability of an adoption in that way. Although I hope that a basis for his concerns will never materialise, we believe that the convention's structure, methodology and very strict requirements on assessments of suitability for adoption will make the advent of such a basis very improbable.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, West (Valerie Davey) was certainly right to describe the Hague convention as an act of international solidarity, because it is about the safety and welfare of children. She was right also to say that the Bill will help to provide necessary clarification of the procedures that should be followed in intercountry adoptions.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale, East (Mr. Goggins) brought his own very considerable professional knowledge and insight to bear in a very impressive speech--although he started a trend for later speeches, in which other hon. Members made almost therapeutic confessions that they are or have been social workers. I do not think that any of them have anything to apologise for. Social work is an honourable and very important profession, and the Government shall certainly be taking action to improve social services and to support social workers in some of the very difficult work that they do on our behalf.
My hon. Friend stressed the need for a properly regulated process in intercountry adoptions, which is exactly what the Bill will provide. He was right also to make the point that the Bill is not about red tape--a theme that was picked up in later speeches--but about allowing the United Kingdom to implement fully the Hague convention. To echo his phrase--I cannot put it any better--the Bill is a marriage of high principle with common sense. He placed the Bill exactly in its proper context.
My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, East spoke very movingly of his own family history, and of the circumstances in which his father and grandfather found themselves. He emphasised the strong support for the Bill--which commands universal support both inside and outside the House--and struck exactly the right balance between promoting the welfare of children and meeting the aspirations of would-be adopters.
I am very sorry that the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South is not in the Chamber, but he had to deal with other commitments. In an extraordinarily effective and powerful speech, he gave us the benefit of his own considerable knowledge of intercountry adoptions, rightly pointing out not only the pitfalls, but the more positive outcomes produced by intercountry adoptions. He also rightly said that we have to be rigorous in our assessment procedures on prospective adopters. The House listened with very great interest to his remarks. I am sure, from their tone, that he will continue his efforts, perhaps in the Council of Europe, to secure advances in the welfare of children. I am glad that he so strongly supports the Bill, which he described as a shining light, in which we may all bask.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bury, North (Mr. Chaytor) mentioned some quite specific concerns and a specific adoption case in his own constituency. I was glad to hear that that case has now been resolved. He also raised the much wider issue of information on adoptive families, and on giving rights to relatives of those who have been adopted to identify and contact their adopted relative. Although I should be happy to meet him at any time to discuss those issues, if he thinks that that would be helpful, there are some significant risks in pursuing the path that he seemed to want us to take. It is only fair to put that on the record, but we are happy to discuss the issues with him in more detail if he would find that helpful.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (Mr. Healey) raised several issues, including the number of children involved in intercountry adoptions. I can confirm that his figures were broadly accurate. He also emphasised the importance of international action to ensure the proper protection of the welfare of children moving across national boundaries.
My hon. Friend asked about the number of countries that have signed the convention and the number that have subsequently ratified it, pointing out what he regarded as some discrepancies in the information that had been provided. As of 5 February this year, 35 nations had signed the Hague convention and 23 had ratified it. Six others had acceded to the convention, making a total of 29 countries in a position to implement it. Accession is equivalent to ratification, but only members of the Hague conference can ratify it. Non-members take the path of acceding to the convention. The Bill will allow the United Kingdom to join the list of countries that have ratified the convention. We shall all be pleased when that happens.
My hon. Friend also asked about the central authorities required under the convention. He was right to suggest that the Department of Health in England will be the central point of contact between all four home countries and the convention, but central authorities will be created in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is not a requirement of the 1993 Hague convention that the central authority should be a public body, but all the countries that have ratified it have appointed the relevant public body that already has responsibility for adoption. That is entirely appropriate and makes perfect sense.
My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West traced some of the recent history of adoption law and the background to the Bill. He rightly drew attention to the strong support for the Bill expressed by the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering. We welcome that support, which is encouraging.
In a short but effective speech, my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Pound) was the only Member to draw attention to the aspects of the Bill that relate to the British Nationality Act 1981. He explained powerfully why amendments to that Act were necessary. He also rightly emphasised the need for the highest possible standards in intercountry adoption.
My hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore) drew attention to some of the particularly difficult situations that can arise where there are hostilities or other civil emergencies. I emphasise that the greatest care should be taken in such cases.
I hope that I have responded to all the points that have been raised during the debate. If there are any other outstanding issues to which hon. Members would like a response, I shall ensure that we follow them up with correspondence. I place on record my appreciation for the hon. Member for Winchester in his choice of Bill. He has done the House an enormous service, giving us an opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the welfare and protection of children, and we are grateful to him.
The Government recognise the need for legislation. The Adoption Act 1976 and the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978, both of which would be amended by the Bill, were
prepared at a time when very few people in the United Kingdom adopted from overseas. Such adoptions were confined mainly to the adoption of relatives. Intercountry adoption has been growing steadily in recent years, providing an option for people who cannot have children or who wish to extend their existing family. Our view is that the opportunity to adopt from overseas should continue to be facilitated.
The Bill will place intercountry adoption on a firm legal footing. Its provisions largely replicate measures contained in a comprehensive adoption Bill issued as part of a consultation document in 1996 by the previous Administration; the proposals on intercountry adoption received widespread support at that time from everyone in the sector, including professionals--such as social workers--interested organisations and the judiciary.
The Bill will enable more adoptive families to adopt children from overseas and have the adoption order automatically recognised within England, Scotland and Wales, when they adopt under the 1993 Hague convention. That means that the adoptive parents will not be required to reapply to a court for a second adoption order on their return. Also, their adopted children will enjoy the same legal status as children adopted in the UK; that will include the opportunity to have their adoption registered. Equally important, the Bill closes the door firmly on those who would seek to adopt children without going through the proper process.
I shall say more about those issues in a few moments, when I have set the Bill in its wider context. Hon. Members will be aware of the Government's "Quality Protects" programme, the objective of which is to improve all services for children, including adoption, through good-quality assessment and care planning, effective audit mechanisms and stronger management. It is a three-year programme and in this, its first year, work towards achieving those improvements is already well advanced.
In that connection, the Government have invested £375 million over the three-year period to assist local authorities to develop management action plans that identify specific projects for improvement. We are working with local authorities to bring adoption into the mainstream of children's services. We are also anxious to see a marked reduction in the time children spend in temporary care before being placed with new and permanent parents. It is no longer acceptable--if it ever was--for children to be allowed to drift in the care system.
"Quality Protects" addresses that issue and also seeks to change certain attitudes towards adoption--the subject of the Bill. For too long, adoption has been regarded as an option of last resort--to be applied only when all other alternatives have been tried and have failed. Such a view demonstrates a misconception of the value of adoption and a failure to understand its advantages for children unable to live with their own families.
Adoption must be seen as a positive option for children; that important message permeates the "Quality Protects" programme. For some children, adoption provides a fresh start, perhaps giving them their only opportunity of experiencing family life. More than 850,000 children in the United Kingdom have benefited from adoption since the first adoption legislation in 1926. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to adoptive parents, through
whose generosity and commitment so many children have come to enjoy the sense of security and well-being that may have been denied them in their younger lives.
The hon. Member for Winchester began his speech by reminding the House that a mark of our society is how we treat our children. I agree strongly with him. The Bill is essentially about children and measures to protect them. However, those children live not in the United Kingdom but overseas--sometimes in countries where there is great deprivation and poverty. Not only are many families in those countries vulnerable, but the children are even more vulnerable.
Many hon. Members referred to the 1989 UN convention on the rights of the child, which points out that
The real alternative for many abandoned children in a number of countries is a life in an institution throughout their childhood. Some children leave the institutions to live in public sewers, or on the streets, surviving by stealing or prostitution, or acting as drug couriers. The life expectancy of most of those children is estimated by UNICEF--the United Nations Children's Fund--to be about six years. Death often comes to those children as a result of a drug overdose, murder, hypothermia, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and so on. We must continue to work with our international partners to improve the situation facing those vulnerable children.
The aims of the Bill, although having to do with the adoption of children from overseas, complement the concepts behind the "Quality Protects" programme. The Bill provides two important measures to protect those children: first, by enabling the United Kingdom to give effect to the 1993 Hague convention; and, secondly, by providing sanctions against those who bring them, or arrange for them to be brought, to the UK without authority.
Because the children are to be adopted by people living in a different country, there are two sets of laws and regulations to be met: those of the child's country of origin and those of the adopter's country of residence. It was with that in mind, as well the knowledge that intercountry adoption is frequently linked to abuses against children and their families, that the Hague conference began its work on intercountry adoption in 1990. More than 80 countries, including the United Kingdom, and many non-governmental organisations took an active part in the work of the conference over a three-year period, culminating in the convention in May 1993. Hon. Members will know that, in 1991, the United Kingdom ratified the 1989 UN convention on the rights of the child, and that that convention provided the bedrock for the 1993 Hague convention.
The hon. Member for Winchester explained that the convention is a framework containing minimum standards to be applied by countries seeking to ratify it. It is not a comprehensive adoption manual, but a document upon
which countries can build and so improve their own legislative measures. The United Kingdom is fortunate in that there already exists a comprehensive framework to operate the majority of the requirements set out in the articles to the convention. The Bill fills the remaining gaps and provides the opportunity for the UK to meet an important international obligation by giving effect to the convention's articles. In ratifying the convention, the Government will provide a clear signal abroad, for which the hon. Gentleman asked, that we take seriously the protection of children adopted from overseas.
The Bill amends section 1(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North referred, by providing that, where a child who does not have British nationality is adopted, either in any UK court or outside the British islands, under the convention--and only under the convention--he will be able to acquire British nationality automatically. That will be subject to at least one of the adoptive parents being a British citizen at the time the adoption order is made in the foreign court; and, in the case of a convention adoption, on the adopter--or, where they are married, both adopters--being habitually resident in the UK.
Under current law, an adoption order made in a United Kingdom court automatically confers British nationality on a child who is not a British citizen where at least one of the adopters is a British citizen. Therefore, the amendment ensures that the adopted child enjoys the same status from the making of a convention adoption order as he would if the adoption were made in the UK--a requirement placed on the Government by the convention.
In doing that, the Bill implements article 26(2) of the convention, which requires a contracting state, where an adoption has the effect of terminating a pre-existing legal parent-child relationship, to ensure that:
I am pleased to inform the House that, since 1990, when interest in intercountry adoption began in earnest, the majority of people adopting children from overseas have done so through the proper channels, by approaching a local authority or an approved adoption agency. Since 1993, almost 1,200 applications have been processed by the Department of Health to adopt children from42 different countries. Many adopters have written to Department of Health officials responsible for intercountry adoption expressing their thanks for the help and support that they have received. Although I do not pretend that the present system is perfect, in most cases, it works well within existing legislative constraints.
However, a not insignificant number of people, for a variety of reasons, choose not to proceed with an intercountry adoption through the proper channels. The precise figure is not known, but it is estimated from various sources that about 100 children living overseas
are affected in that way each year. Not only do those people avoid procedures in the United Kingdom, but many seek the help--not without cost--of individuals or organisations overseas which themselves operate outside their own laws. It is not unknown for fraudulent documents to be used to secure an adoption order in a child's country of origin; and there are often concerns about the validity of a mother's consent to the adoption of her child, or that she has received money or other forms of reward to persuade her to relinquish her child for adoption.
Many international child welfare organisations, including UNICEF, Defence of Children International and the UN special commission on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, continually voice their concerns about trafficking in children. The drafters of the 1989 UN convention on the rights of the child were highly aware of the moral and physical dangers facing children in many countries. Regrettably, trafficking is too often linked with intercountry adoption, as it is a very lucrative source of income for the unscrupulous. Operation of the convention will eliminate such practices, as will the requirement in the Bill that every person seeking to adopt a child from overseas must be assessed by an adoption agency.
I take this opportunity to assure the House that the Bill is not about frustrating the wishes of those who want to adopt children from overseas; it is about setting out clearly and for the first time the correct procedure to be followed. Continued co-operation between the relevant competent adoption authorities in both the adopter's country and that of the child will ensure that only those children who are in genuine need of a new family are placed for adoption.
As the hon. Member for Winchester has already pointed out, the objectives of the proposed sanctions include dealing with unacceptable practices in intercountry adoption in order to deter those who would otherwise make arrangements to adopt a child and who have not been approved as suitable to become adoptive parents, those who have been assessed and found unsuitable, or who have not applied because they are aware that their application is bound to fail.
I could say much more about the Bill but, in order to ensure that the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir R. Smith) has an opportunity to present his Health Care and Energy Efficiency Bill, it might be helpful if I confine my remaining remarks to the timetable for enacting the measures.
"intercountry adoption may offer the advantage of a permanent family to a child for whom a suitable family cannot be found in his or her State of origin".
My hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster and Wyre made particular reference to that. For many, if not, children needing new families in countries working withthe United Kingdom, there is no alternative to institutionalised care; adoptive families are simply not available and relatives are able to care for those children in only a small percentage of cases.
"the child shall enjoy in the receiving State, and any other Contracting State where the adoption is recognised, rights equivalent to those resulting from adoptions having this effect in each such State".
Let me assure the House that that provision does not breach any fundamental principle of UK sovereignty. A court in another convention country is not being given authority to confer British nationality; rather, the United Kingdom is imposing an additional effect upon a convention adoption at the time the order is made. Therefore, it is the United Kingdom that determines British citizenship, not the foreign court.
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