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Lord Northbourne: My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister. I feel much comforted by what she said. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 64 [Other provision to be made by regulations]:
Lord McIntosh of Haringey moved Amendment No. 68A:
- Page 38, line 12, leave out subsection (5).
The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 68A omits subsection (5) of Clause 64. In the context of government Amendment No. 96A, which I have agreed should not be grouped with this amendment and to which I shall come shortly, we now also consider that adoption support agencies should be able to apply for information on behalf of a birth relative or an adopted person for adoptions made after the Bill comes into force.
By omitting subsection (5) of Clause 64, we make clear that the powers in Clause 9 may provide for anyone—that is, not only the adopted person—to authorise a third party to receive information on his or her behalf. The intention is that under the powers in Clause 9 adoption agencies will be required to obtain information from the third party to ensure that the applicant for the information has authorised the third party to receive it on his behalf. I beg to move.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Clause 66 [Meaning of adoption in Chapter 4]:
Lord McIntosh of Haringey had given notice of his intention to move Amendment No. 70:
- Page 39, line 27, leave out from beginning to "the" in line 28 and insert "But references in this Chapter to adoption do not include an adoption effected before"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall not move Amendment No. 70 because it is consequential on Amendment No. 51. It may help the House if I put on record the other amendments that I shall not move. They are Amendments Nos. 71 to 73, 77 to 85, 92 to 96, 122 to 127, 130 to 134, 139 to 143, 145 to 148, 150 to 154, 165 and 167. It will be observed that I have not included Amendments Nos. 157, 170 and 171 which
are in this group. They will be moved when we return to the Bill next week. I am not moving Amendment No. 70.
Earl Howe: My Lords, with the leave of the House, the Minister referred to Amendment No. 154. We spoke to that in an earlier group. I had hoped that it would be moved.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, that is right. I doubt that we shall reach Amendment No. 154 today but I shall be moving it.
Clause 67 [Status conferred by adoption]:
[Amendments Nos.72 and 73 not moved.]
Lord Northbourne moved Amendment No. 74:
- Page 40, line 1, at beginning insert "subject to paragraph (c)"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, this issue has come to my notice only since Grand Committee. I apologise for not having raised it in Grand Committee.
It has been represented to me that adoption legislation as it now stands, and as it will remain if the clause as drafted stands part of the Bill, may not always operate in the best interests of the child. It may also face the birth father of the child (it usually is the father) with an agonising decision as to whether to reject the proposal for adoption or to agree to it in the best interests of the child knowing that if he does so he will cut himself off from the child for ever. The situation is unnecessary and would be remedied by the amendment which may need rewording.
Let us consider an example. A and B are married. They are the birth parents of a child. They find that the marriage is not working out for reasons of incompatibility. They separate. The mother (A) subsequently forms a partnership with, or marries, another man. The child lives happily with them but continues to see his father. After a while A and C decide that they would like to adopt the child in order to confirm the stability of their commitment to her.
As the law stands at present, if B, the other birth parent, usually the father, agrees to the adoption the court has no alternative but to cause him to cease to be the parent of that child and the child loses a father. It is argued that this may not be in the best interests of the child and may face the birth father with an agonising and unnecessary choice.
I am informed that it is a quite common situation under the law as it stands today. I have set down the amendment to draw attention to the situation because I am informed that in some continental countries the law provides that under appropriate circumstances the birth father may retain the status of father despite a step parent adoption. The child then has three parents. If all three are good parents, it will be in the best interest of the child. I beg to move.
8.15 p.m.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My Lords, I have serious difficulty with the amendments. They seek to create a new type of what has been called a simple adoption order where a child is adopted by the spouse or partner of one birth parent but the legal relationship between the child and the other birth parent has not been severed.
Adoption seeks to secure a permanent home for a child by transferring the child for virtually all purposes from the birth family to a new adoptive family and severing the legal links with the first. The amendments would result in the child having three legal parents: the natural parents and the spouse or partner of one of them. That undermines fundamentally the principle of adoption. It could cause uncertainty and distress for all concerned, especially the child. What happens, for example, if a birth parent disagrees with the way the adoptive parents are bringing up a child? The birth parent can apply for a Section 8 order under the Children Act whether or not he or she has parental responsibility. That could include applying for a residence order. Surely that is inconsistent with providing for children a secure and permanent future with adoptive families.
I fully accept that there are cases when adoption is not right. Adoption is not right for all children. That is why there are the alternatives of residence orders. The court must consider in each case what is in the best interest of the child. When a family splits up, it must be right that a spouse or partner of the parent with care should be able to apply for parental responsibility to help to share fully in the day-to-day care of the child. However, where there is an interested and caring birth parent, it is unlikely that the court will consider a step parent adoption to be in the best interest of the child.
The adoption review considered the option proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, but did not favour it. The responses to the review were overwhelmingly in favour of the approach in the Bill. Given the range of options open to the court to make an order in the best interests of the child, I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, will feel able to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Northbourne: My Lords, I understand the Minister to say that the solution to the problem is that the child should not be adopted by the step family. I should like to take advice on that and to read what the noble Lord said. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendments Nos. 75 to 79 not moved.]
Clause 68 [Adoptive relatives]:
[Amendments Nos. 80 to 82 not moved.]
Clause 69 [Rules of interpretation for instruments concerning property]:
[Amendments Nos. 83 and 84 not moved.]
Schedule 1 [Registration of Adoptions]:
Earl Howe moved Amendment No. 86:
- Page 88, line 35, at end insert ", or
The noble Earl said: My Lords, Amendment No. 86 returns us to an issue that I raised in Grand Committee with which the Minister dealt most helpfully on that occasion. I have tabled the amendment again, however, because there are some outstanding matters of detail on which I should be glad of clarification.
Perhaps I may briefly remind the House of the issue. Under current rules, recognised overseas adoptions cannot be entered on the adopted children register. Children whose overseas adoptions cannot be registered cannot be issued with a birth or adoption certificate and have to rely throughout their lives for day-to-day purposes on their foreign birth or other certificates. These certificates mark them out as different from other citizens and can contain negative references such as "abandoned" or "without parents".
There is provision under the 1999 Act and under the Adoption and Children Bill for such adoptions to be registered where necessary information is available. In Grand Committee, the Minister indicated that the term "overseas adoption" includes adoption made under the old designated list, thereby giving registration of overseas adoption retrospective effect.
That was a most helpful clarification for which I was grateful. However, the Minister made clear that,
The largest single group of children who potentially stand to benefit from this change in legislation are the 800-plus children who have been adopted from China. We cannot, though, be certain how many of those adopted children will benefit from the change, because it is unclear what will constitute "sufficient information".
I hope that the Minister can reassure me. My fear is that it is precisely the most vulnerable children and those for whom an English adoption or birth certificate is vital who will find that they have too little information for their adoption to be registered; for example, those children whose various Chinese certificates do not record the name they were given at the time of their adoption and by which they are now known. Their disadvantage would be further compounded as, without the registration of their adoption, neither they nor their birth family members will be eligible to access the adoption contact register.
Where an overseas adoption is not capable of registration, adoptive parents will continue to turn to the English courts to readopt their children as their only route to adoption registration and acquisition of an English birth or adoption certificate. Not every court has been willing to consider such applications. Where courts will, it will be at the expense of court time, and, I suggest, unnecessary involvement of local authorities and CAFCASS.
For this reason, my amendment proposes a safety net. The safety net would permit the High Court to determine in appropriate cases that an overseas adoption can be entered in the adopted children register where that is found to be in the child's best interests.
This is not a trivial issue about procedure. It addresses itself at real human need: the need to have an identity, and the need to be able to prove that identity easily throughout one's life. I hope that the Minister will be able once again to reassure me that the system will not be stacked against these very vulnerable children. I beg to move.
( ) adoption, whenever granted, which the High Court in the exercise of its inherent jurisdiction orders to be registered in the interest of the adopted person."
"it is possible that when an old overseas adoption was made, the adopters were not provided with the information or documentation that the registrar-general applies to register the adoption".—[Official Report, 15/7/02; col. CWH 299.]
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