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Mr Secretary Milburn
38
Page 48, line 28 [Clause 88], leave out 'colony' and insert 'British overseas territory'.
Mr Secretary Milburn
27
Page 69, line 6 [Clause 121], leave out 'parents,' and insert 'natural parents (whether or not they have parental responsibilities or parental rights in relation to the child), natural'.
Mr Secretary Milburn
28
Page 69, line 24 [Clause 121], at end insert—
'() In relation to a child brought into the United Kingdom for adoption in circumstances where this section applies, regulations may provide for any provision of Part II of this Act to apply with modifications or not to apply.'
Mr Secretary Milburn
305
Page 70, line 1 [Clause 122], leave out from first 'adoption" ' to end of line 11 and insert '—
| (a) | means an adoption of a description specified in an order made by the Scottish Ministers, being a description of adoptions effected under the law of any country or territory outside the British Islands, but |
| (b) | does not include a Convention adoption. |
(2A) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations prescribe the requirements that ought to be met by an adoption of any description effected after the commencement of the regulations for it to be an overseas adoption for the purposes of this Act.
(2B) At any time when such regulations have effect, the Scottish Ministers must exercise their power under subsection (2) so as to secure that subsequently effected adoptions of any description are not overseas adoptions for the purposes of this Act if they consider that such adoptions are not likely within a reasonable time to meet the prescribed requirements.'.
Mr Secretary Milburn
306
Page 70, [Clause 122], leave out lines 14 to 19 and insert—
'(2D) In subsections (2) to (2C), "adoption" means the adoption of a child or of a person who was a child at the time the adoption was applied for.'.
Mr Secretary Milburn
39
Page 71, line 6 [Clause 125], leave out subsection (3) and insert—
'( ) The British Nationality Act 1981 is amended as follows.
( ) In section 1 (acquisition of British citizenship by birth or adoption)—
| (a) | in subsection (5), at the end of paragraph (b) there is inserted "effected under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom", |
| (b) | at the end of subsection (5A)(b) there is inserted "or in a designated territory", |
| (c) | in subsection (8), the words following "section 50" are omitted. |
( ) In section 15 (acquisition of British overseas territories citizenship)—
| (a) | after subsection (5) there is inserted— |
"(5A) Where—
| (a) | a minor who is not a British overseas territories citizen is adopted under a Convention adoption, |
| (b) | on the date on which the adoption is effected— |
| (i) | the adopter or, in the case of a joint adoption, one of the adopters is a British overseas territories citizen, and |
| (ii) | the adopter or, in the case of a joint adoption, both of the adopters are habitually resident in a designated territory, and |
| (c) | the Convention adoption is effected under the law of a country or territory outside the designated territory, |
the minor shall be a British overseas territories citizen as from that date.",
| (b) | in subsection (6), after "order" there is inserted "or a Convention adoption". |
( ) In section 50 (interpretation), in subsection (1)—
| (a) | after the definition of "company" there is inserted— |
"'Convention adoption'" means an adoption effected under the law of a country or territory in which the Convention is in force, and certified in pursuance of Article 23(1) of the Convention",
| (b) | after the definition of "'Crown service under the government of the United Kingdom'" there is inserted— |
"designated territory" means a qualifying territory, or the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which is designated by Her Majesty by Order in Council under subsection (14)". ( ) After subsection (13) of that section there is inserted—
"(14) For the purposes of the definition of "designated territory" in subsection (1), an Order in Council may—
| (a) | designate any qualifying territory, or the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, if the Convention is in force there, and |
| (b) | make different designations for the purposes of section 1 and section 15; |
and, for the purposes of this subsection and the definition of "Convention adoption" in subsection (1), "the Convention" means the Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption, concluded at the Hague on 29th May 1993.
An Order in Council under this subsection shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament".'.
NEW CLAUSES RELATING TO PART 1
Proceedings in Great Britain
Mr Secretary Milburn
NC14
To move the following Clause:—
'Proceedings for an offence by virtue of section 9, 57, 90, 91, 92 or 119—
| (a) | may not be brought more than six years after the commission of the offence but, subject to that, |
| (b) | may be brought within a period of six months from the date on which evidence sufficient in the opinion of the prosecutor to warrant the proceedings came to his knowledge. |
In relation to Scotland, "the prosecutor" is to be read as "the procurator fiscal".'.
Right to obtain information: adult siblings
Dr Liam Fox
Tim Loughton
Mr Oliver Heald
Mr Simon Burns
David Maclean
NC1
To move the following Clause:—
'(1) Adult siblings by birth of adopted adults who have been adopted at any time from the enactment of the Adoption Act 1926 shall have the right to make an application to an adoption agency, as specified in regulations, to obtain the information under section 77 relating to his relative who was adopted.
(2) The agency shall make enquiries as necessary to establish the views of the adopted person concerning the disclosure of information to the relative.
(3) The information applied for shall be supplied by the agency to the applicant unless either—
| (a) | the adopted person has refused consent to the disclosure , or |
| (b) | the agency obtains an order from the High Court which authorises the agency not to disclose the information requested. |
(4) The High Court may make an order on an application by the appropriate adoption agency, if satisfied that the circumstances are exceptional.'.
Adoption by unmarried couples
Dr Evan Harris
Sandra Gidley
Dr Richard Taylor
Mr Elfyn Llwyd
Jeremy Corbyn
Mr Tony McWalter
NC2
To move the following Clause:—
'(1) An adoption order may not be granted on the application of an unmarried couple unless the court is satisfied—
| (a) | that both of the applicants are over the age of twenty-one; |
| (b) | for the period of 2 years ending with the date of the application, the partners have lived in the same household (otherwise than merely by reason of one of them being the other's employee, tenant, lodger or boarder); and |
| (c) | that the applicants are not close relatives of each other. |
(2) "Close relative", in relation to any person, means his grandparents, parents, children, step-children, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, brothers and sisters and step-brothers and step-sisters.
(3) In relation to any application made under this section, the court may take into consideration the arrangements which the applicants have made, or intend to make in order to safeguard the welfare of the child involved, should their relationship break down.'.
Adoption orders: unmarried couples
Mr David Hinchliffe
Mr Andrew Lansley
Mr Elfyn Llwyd
Mr Jonathan R. Shaw
Mr Tony McWalter
Virginia Bottomley
NC3
To move the following Clause:—
'(1) An adoption order may be made on the application of an unmarried couple where both members of the couple have attained the age of 21 years.
(2) An adoption order may be made on the application by an unmarried couple if the court is satisfied
| (a) | that they have been living together for at least two years at time of application, |
| (b) | that the relationship between the couple is stable and is intended by each of them to be permanent, and |
| (c) | that the unmarried couple has made arrangements to safeguard the financial and practical security of the child in the event of the ending of their relationship and to meet their joint and individual parental responsibilities.'. |
Disclosure of information regarding a person's adoption
Dr Liam Fox
Tim Loughton
Mr Oliver Heald
Mr Simon Burns
David Maclean
NC4
To move the following Clause:—
'(1) This section shall apply only to an adopted person who has attained the age of 18 years.
(2) The appropriate adoption agency shall have a duty to inform an adopted person that he was adopted, subject to the regulations referred to in subsection (3).
(3) Regulations may prescribe—
| (a) | the method by which adoption agencies shall discharge the duty described in subsection (2), and |
| (b) | any categories of adopted persons to whom the duty subscribed in subsection (2) shall not apply.'. |
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