The Act
13.The Act extends to all forms of intercountry adoption or adoption with a foreign element. It enables England, Wales and Scotland to give effect to the 1993 Hague Convention through regulations. It establishes a Central Authority for each of England, Wales and Scotland to be responsible for the operation of the Convention and the appointment of approved adoption agencies as Accredited Bodies (sections 1 and 2). Provision is also made to enable the Secretary of State to make regulations for Convention adoption orders and for the recognition and annulment of Convention adoptions. The British Nationality Act 1981 is amended to enable children adopted overseas under the Convention to receive British citizenship automatically under certain conditions (sections 3 to 8).
14.The Act also amends the 1976 Act and the 1978 Act to regulate intercountry adoption in both Convention and non Convention cases. It clarifies that there is a duty on local authorities to include intercountry adoption within their adoption services and enables adoption societies to be approved for intercountry adoption work (sections 9 and10). It makes changes to the period a child must live with the adopters before an adoption order is made in intercountry cases and provides that adoption agencies will have responsibilities towards the placement (sections 11 and 13).
Changes are made to the procedure which requires the Registrar General to enter in the Adopted Children Register adoptions effected under the Convention and overseas adoptions (section 12).
15.Sections 14 to 18 deal with miscellaneous and supplemental provisions which include the introduction of new sanctions to make it a criminal offence in intercountry adoptions for a person to make arrangements for the adoption of a child or place a child for adoption unless requirements to be prescribed in regulations are complied with. These sanctions will not apply to birth parents, legal guardians or blood relatives. The Act makes the necessary provisions to enable the United Kingdom in due course to denounce the 1965 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law and Recognition of Decrees relating to Adoptions, concluded at the Hague on 15 November 1965. This Convention was ratified by only two other countries – Austria and Switzerland – which have also declared their intention to denounce it (sections 15 and 17). The purpose of the Convention was to resolve some of the difficulties and legal conflicts which may arise in intercountry adoption relating to recognition of adoption orders granted in other countries. This Convention has now been overtaken by the 1993 Convention.