Part of Adoption and Children Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 6:30 pm ar 18 Rhagfyr 2001.
Tim Loughton
Shadow Spokesperson (Health)
6:30,
18 Rhagfyr 2001
I beg to move Amendment No. 189, in page 32, line 23, at end insert—
'Where an adoption agency which has carried out functions in respect of an adopted person is made aware of the death of that adopted person, it shall have a duty to make reasonable efforts to inform the natural parents of that adopted person of that person's death'.
This is very straightforward and I hope that it is not contentious. We have debated at length the disclosure of information to birth parents and will, I am sure, return to it. The amendment tackles a matter that arose during the evidence-gathering sitting by making an addition to Clause 55 to the effect that if an adoption agency that has acted for an adopted person has been
''made aware of the death of that adopted person, it shall have a duty to make reasonable efforts to inform the natural parents of that adopted person of that person's death''.
Contentious issues arise as to what information should be made available to birth relatives and the hon. Member for Cardiff, West eloquently made a strong case. I agreed with much of what he said and disagreed with part of it, but his points were well made. The Minister acknowledged that the issue was sensitive and we are dealing with cases that go back many years. I hope that a better system will come from our deliberations, but the issues must be handled sensibly.
However, the point with which the amendment deals is perfectly reasonable and above contention and it was raised in the Committee's witness stages. Birth parents surely have a right to know whether a birth child whom they gave up for adoption is still alive. We can envisage various scenarios. A birth parent who gave a child up for adoption 20, 30 or 40 years ago may decide to seek contact at a late stage or at least to seek information about the child's well-being without making contact. A birth parent may have given up a child in difficult circumstances many years ago, not of their own volition, because they were under pressure. They may genuinely want to seek information about their child and it would be a cruel trick if they found out, after a good deal of effort and investigation, that the child had died some years previously and that all their work, hopes and expectations were completely in vain.
We can continue to debate what other information should be available to birth parents who are actively seeking a child who is still alive. At the very least, however—we are not talking about an absolute compulsion—adoption agencies should make all reasonable efforts to inform the birth parents that the adopted child has passed away. That is reasonable and humane and I doubt whether most members of the Committee would disagree with the thrust of the amendment. I hope that the Minister will be able, to coin a phrase, to adopt it, even if she has some criticism of the way in which it is phrased.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
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A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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