Background
3.This Act is intended to assist in the implementation of the Green Paper Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities (Cm 6273), published in July 2004.
4.The Green Paper was followed by Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities: Next Steps (Cm 6452), published in January 2005, which set out the Government's response to the consultation on the Green Paper and its proposals for further work. Subsequent to that, the Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill was published in draft on 2nd February 2005 for pre-legislative scrutiny by an ad hoc joint committee of both Houses of Parliament. The scrutiny committee published its report on 12th April 2005, and The Government Reply to the Report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Children (Contact) and Adoption Bill (Cm 6583) was published on 8th June 2005.
5.The Act provides the courts with new powers to promote contact and enforce contact orders made under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (‘the 1989 Act’).
6.The Act also makes a number of provisions about intercountry adoption, including a statutory framework for the suspension of intercountry adoption from specified countries where there are concerns about practices in connection with the adoption of children.