Adoption and Children Bill

Adoption and Children Bill - continued	House of Commons
PART I, ADOPTION - continued

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	Supplemental
Regulation of adoption agencies.	8. - (1) Regulations may make provision for any purpose relating to the exercise-
	(a) by local authorities, and
	(b) by voluntary organisations which are adoption societies (referred to below as voluntary adoption agencies),
	of their functions in relation to adoption and, in particular, may make any provision mentioned in subsections (2) to (5).
	(2) In relation to local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies, regulations may make provision as to-
	(a) the persons who are fit to work for them for the purposes of their functions in relation to adoption ("adoption purposes"),
	(b) the fitness of premises,
	(c) the management and control of their operations,
	(d) the number of persons, or persons of any particular type, working for them for adoption purposes,
	(e) the management and training of persons working for them for adoption purposes,
	(f) the keeping of documents and records.
	(3) Regulations under subsection (2)(a) may, in particular, make provision for prohibiting persons from working in prescribed positions unless they are registered in, or in a particular part of, one of the registers maintained under section 56(1) of the Care Standards Act 2000 (registration of social care workers).
	(4) In relation to voluntary adoption agencies, regulations may-
	(a) make provision as to the persons who are fit to manage an agency, including provision prohibiting persons from doing so unless they are registered in, or in a particular part of, one of the registers referred to in subsection (3),
	(b) make provision for securing the welfare of children placed for adoption, including provision as to the promotion and protection of their health,
	(c) impose requirements as to the financial position of an agency,
	(d) make provision requiring an agency to appoint a manager in prescribed circumstances.
	(5) Regulations may make provision as to the conduct of voluntary adoption agencies, and may in particular make provision-
	(a) as to the facilities and services to be provided by an agency,
	(b) as to the keeping of accounts,
	(c) as to the notification to the registration authority of events occurring in premises used for the purposes of an agency,
	(d) as to the giving of notice to the registration authority by an agency or its manager of periods during which its manager proposes to be absent, and specifying the information to be given in such a notice,
	(e) as to the making of adequate arrangements for the running of an agency during a period when its manager is absent,
	(f) as to the giving of notice to the registration authority by an agency or its manager of any intended change in the identity of the manager,
	(g) as to the giving of notice to the registration authority, in respect of an agency which is a body corporate, by the agency or its manager of changes in the ownership of the agency or the identity of its officers,
	(h) requiring the payment of a fee of a prescribed amount to the registration authority in respect of any notification required to be made by virtue of paragraph (g),
	(i) requiring arrangements to be made by an agency, or its manager, for dealing with complaints made by or on behalf of those seeking, or receiving, any of the services provided by the agency and requiring the agency or manager to take steps for publicising the arrangements.
	(6) The extent of the power to make regulations under this section is not limited by any other powers exercisable in respect of local authorities and voluntary adoption agencies.
	(7) Regulations may provide that a person who contravenes or fails to comply with any provision of the regulations is to be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
Regulation of adoption agencies: independent review of determinations.	9. - (1) Regulations under section 8 may establish a procedure under which any person in respect of whom a qualifying determination has been made by an adoption agency may apply to a panel constituted by the appropriate Minister for a review of that determination.
	(2) Provision shall be made in the regulations as to the description of determinations which are qualifying determinations for the purposes of subsection (1).
	(3) The regulations may include provision as to-
	(a) the duties and powers of a panel (including the power to recover the costs of a review from the adoption agency by which the determination reviewed was made),
	(b) the administration and procedures of a panel,
	(c) the appointment of members of a panel (including the number, or any limit on the number, of members who may be appointed and any conditions for appointment),
	(d) the payment of expenses of members of a panel,
	(e) the duties of adoption agencies in connection with reviews conducted under the regulations, and
	(f) the monitoring of any such reviews.
	(4) The appropriate Minister may make an arrangement with an organisation under which functions in relation to the panel are performed by the organisation on his behalf.
	(5) If the appropriate Minister makes such an arrangement with an organisation, the organisation is to perform its functions under the arrangement in accordance with any general or special directions given by the appropriate Minister.
	(6) The arrangement may include provision for payments to be made to the organisation by the appropriate Minister.
	(7) Where the appropriate Minister is the Assembly, subsections (4) and (6) also apply as if references to an organisation included references to the Secretary of State.
	(8) In this section "organisation" includes a public body and a private or voluntary organisation.
Registered adoption societies: financial support.	10. - (1) Regulations may make provision about the giving of financial support by a registered adoption society.
	(2) The regulations may, in particular, make provision as to-
	(a) the persons to whom financial support may be given,
	(b) the ways in which financial support may be given,
	(c) the procedure to be followed in determining whether a person should be given financial support,
	(d) the circumstances in which financial support may be given,
	(e) the factors to be taken into account in determining the way in which financial support is to be given or the amount of that support,
	(f) the circumstances in which financial support may be given subject to conditions,
	(g) the consequences of any conditions imposed by virtue of paragraph (f) not being met (including the recovery of financial support given),
	(h) the procedure for review, variation and termination of financial support, and
	(i) the information about financial support to be given by a registered adoption society to any person who is intending to adopt a child.
Information concerning adoption.	11. - (1) Each adoption agency must give to the appropriate Minister any statistical or other general information he requires about-
	(a) its performance of all or any of its functions relating to adoption, and
	(b) the children and other persons in relation to whom it has exercised those functions.
	(2) The following persons-
	(a) the justices' chief executive for each magistrates' court,
	(b) the relevant officer of each county court, and
	(c) the relevant officer of the High Court,
	must give to the appropriate Minister any statistical or other general information he requires about the proceedings under this Act of that magistrates' court, that county court or the High Court, as the case may be.
	(3) In subsection (2), "relevant officer", in relation to a county court or the High Court, means the officer of that court who is designated to act for the purposes of that subsection by a direction given by the Lord Chancellor.
	(4) The information required to be given to the appropriate Minister under this section must be given at the times, and in the form, directed by him.
	(5) The appropriate Minister may publish from time to time abstracts of the information given to him under this section.
Default power of appropriate Minister.	12. - (1) If the appropriate Minister is satisfied that any local authority have failed, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any of the duties imposed on them by virtue of this Act, he may make an order declaring that authority to be in default in respect of that duty.
	(2) An order under subsection (1) must give the appropriate Minister's reasons for making it.
	(3) An order under subsection (1) may contain such directions as appear to the appropriate Minister to be necessary for the purpose of ensuring that, within the period specified in the order, the duty is complied with.
	(4) Any such directions are enforceable on the appropriate Minister's application by a mandatory order.
Inspection of premises etc. by persons authorised by appropriate Minister.	13. - (1) The appropriate Minister may cause to be inspected from time to time any premises in which-
	(a) a child is living with a person with whom the child has been placed by an adoption agency, or
	(b) a child in respect of whom a notice of intention to adopt has been given under section 37 is, or will be, living.
	(2) The appropriate Minister may require an adoption agency to give him such information, or to allow him to inspect such records (in whatever form they are held), relating to the discharge of any of its functions under this Act as the appropriate Minister may at any time direct.
	(3) An inspection under this section must be conducted by a person authorised to do so by the appropriate Minister.
	(4) An officer of a local authority must not be so authorised except with the consent of that authority.
	(5) Any person inspecting any premises under this section may-
	(a) visit the child there, and
	(b) make such examination into the state of the premises and the treatment of the child there as he thinks fit.
	(6) Any person authorised to inspect records under this section-
	(a) is entitled at any reasonable time to have access to, and inspect and check the operation of, any computer and any associated apparatus or material which is or has been in use in connection with the records in question, and
	(b) may require-
	(i) the person by whom or on whose behalf the computer is or has been so used, or
	(ii) any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the computer, apparatus or material,
	to afford him such reasonable assistance as he may require.
	(7) A person authorised to inspect any premises or records under this section has a right to enter the premises for that purpose at any reasonable time.
	(8) Any person exercising that power must, if so required, produce some duly authenticated document showing his authority to do so.
	(9) Any person who intentionally obstructs another in the exercise of that power is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
Inquiries.	14. - (1) The appropriate Minister may cause an inquiry to be held into any matter connected with the functions of an adoption agency.
	(2) Before an inquiry is begun, the appropriate Minister may direct that it is to be held in private.
	(3) Where no direction has been given, the person holding the inquiry may if he thinks fit hold it, or any part of it, in private.
	(4) Subsections (2) to (5) of section 250 of the Local Government Act 1972 (powers in relation to local inquiries) apply in relation to an inquiry under this section as they apply in relation to a local inquiry under that section.

Prepared 15 March 2001