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Introduction
The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (the 2007 Act) received Royal Assent on 15 January 2007. The 2007 Act introduced a range of reforms into the law relating to adoption of, and permanent care for, children who cannot remain with their birth families. Once the new legislation is commenced, the existing legislation - the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 (the 1978 Act) - will be repealed, except to the extent necessary to maintain the legality of those adoptions that have already been made under it. One consequence of this is that existing Regulations made under the 1978 Act will no longer be valid. For that reason new Regulations require to be put in place to restate, and amend, extend and improve, existing Regulations. In doing this account will be taken of the report from the Adoption Policy Review Group ( APRG) Adoption: Better Choices for Our Children, which has already shaped the 2007 Act itself.
This consultation dealt with the draft Adoption Information (Scotland) Regulations and the draft Adoption (Disclosure of Information)(Scotland) Regulations. Due to these regulations being subject to different Parliamentary procedures the regulations will remain separate from each other. These regulations are designed to make provision for the retention of the case record made during the adoption process, and the circumstances under which this record should be disclosed.
The consultation ran from 13 August 2008 until 8 October 2008. We received sixteen responses to the consultation, eleven from Local Authorities, four from organisations in the sector and beyond and one from an individual.
The Adoption Information (Scotland) Regulations will now be included in the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations instead of being a stand alone provision.
The Adoption (Disclosure of Information) (Scotland) Regulations will now be included with the Adoption (Disclosure of Medical Information about Natural Parents) Regulations in a single set of regulations.
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