Adoption and Children Act 2002

Adoption and Children Act 2002

2002 CHAPTER 38

Commentary on Sections

Part 1 – Adoption

Chapter 5 - The Registers

Section 80: Adoption Contact Register

212. Section 80 places a duty on the Registrar General to continue to maintain in accordance with regulations the Adoption Contact Register at the General Register Office.  The Adoption Contact Register is a register in two Parts designed to facilitate contact between adopted persons and their birth relatives where both parties have expressed a wish for such contact. Subsection (2) enables the Registrar General to prescribe in regulations the information about adopted persons to be included in Part 1 of the Adoption Contact Register. Subsection (3) provides that the Registrar General may make an entry for an adopted adult in Part 1 of the Register if a record of his birth is kept by the Registrar General and he is satisfied that the adopted person has such information necessary to obtain a copy of his birth record. Under subsection (4), the Registrar General is able to make regulations prescribing the information about relatives of adopted persons to be included in Part 2 of the Adoption Contact Register.  It is intended that these regulations will cover information similar to that included in the regulations made under subsection (2), such as names and addresses.  Subsection (5) provides that the Registrar General may only make an entry in Part 2 of the Register for a person who has attained the age of 18 and if the Registrar General is satisfied that he is a relative of an adopted person and has such information as is necessary to enable him to obtain a certified copy of the record of the adopted person’s birth. Subsection (6) enables the Registrar General to make regulations providing for the disclosure of information contained in one Part of the Register to persons included in the other Part of the Register.  Such regulations may provide, for example, that information held on the Register should only be given to the adopted person in order to enable them to make a choice as to whether to initiate contact with their relative(s).  Subsection (6) also provides that regulations may be made by the Registrar General to set fees for the making or alteration of entries in the Register, and the disclosure of information contained in it.