7.—(1) A local authority shall appoint an adoption panel for the purpose of considering and advising on the matters specified in regulation 11 and may appoint such additional adoption panels as it considers necessary.
(2) An approved adoption society which is carrying out or proposing to carry out functions described in regulation 11 shall appoint an adoption panel for the purpose of considering and advising on the matters specified in that regulation, and may appoint such additional adoption panels as it considers necessary.
(3) An adoption agency shall satisfy itself that the numbers, qualifications and experience of individual members of an adoption panel will enable it effectively to discharge its functions under regulation 11.
(4) An adoption panel shall consist of not less than 6 persons each of whom shall be competent to assess whether any recommendation in relation to a child to be made by virtue of regulation 11(1) is likely to promote the welfare of the child, and shall include at least one man and at least one woman.
(5) The persons appointed to an adoption panel shall include–
(a)a person appointed as a medical adviser to the adoption agency under regulation 6(1); and
(b)a person appointed as a legal adviser to the adoption agency under regulation 6(2).
(6) An adoption panel shall make the recommendations specified–
(a)in regulation 11 only when at least 3 of its members, excluding any medical and legal adviser appointed to the panel under paragraph (5), meet as a panel; and
(b)in regulation 11(1)(a) only when a legal adviser appointed to the adoption panel under paragraph (5) is present, or legal advice has been provided to the panel by such an adviser.