Section 125: Adoption and Children Act Register
309.Subsection (1) of section 125 enables the Queen to make an Order in Council enabling the Secretary of State to establish and maintain a register to be known as the Adoption and Children Act Register. The register will cover England and may also cover Wales and/or Scotland. It will contain details of children who are suitable for adoption and prospective adopters who have been approved to adopt a child. This information will be used to suggest adoptive families for children in cases where a local match is not suitable for the child, or cannot be found within an agreed period of time. The register will also contain additional prescribed information about such people in respect of events occurring to them after their inclusion in the register (see subsection (1)(b)). This provision may be used, for example, to enable the register to record information about the stability of adoptive placements.
310.Subsection (2) enables the Order to apply any of the provisions in sections 126 to 131 with or without modification for the purpose of finding persons with whom children may be placed for purposes other than adoption. This provision may be used to extend the remit of the register to cover children needing other types of permanent placements, such as special guardianship.
311.The register will not be open to public inspection or search and the Order will make provision about retention of information in the register. Information will be held on the Register in any form the Secretary of State considers appropriate, but is most likely to be held electronically.
