New provisions on the disclosure of information
Adoption and Children Bill
10:10 am
James Paton (Directorate of Children, Older People and Social Care Services, Department of Health):
We looked at that issue, following the adoption law review, in developing the Bill and the draft Bill in 1996. I think that the Government believe that the child's welfare should be the paramount consideration in all adoption decisions, including the question of dispensing with parental consent. Clause 1 sets out a checklist of factors that the court must look at in considering whether to make a placement order or an adoption order without the consent of the parents. In particular, I draw the Committee's attention to clause 1(4)(f), which obliges the court to consider the child's relationship with their birth family and any other significant people, the views of the family and their capacity to care for the child and provide a stable and secure home.
We did not explicitly use the phrase ``so significantly better'' because we did not think that it added anything to the considerations that the court must bear in mind in taking such decisions. The court will have to consider all the various factors. In weighing up whether or not to make the adoption order, it will have to bear in mind those factors, its other powers under adoption legislation and the Children Act, and, of course, the various parties' rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the European convention on human rights. The decision will need to be taken in the context of ECHR case law and the test that the court would have to take in deciding to dispense with the parents' consent would not be trivial or low.
We did not think that saying that the court must not dispense with the consent unless it is ``so significantly better'' added anything—what would the court look at in deciding whether it was ``so significantly better''? We think that the court would consider the list of factors in clause 1(4), weigh up various factors in the context of convention rights and the court's other powers and come to a decision. We are not sure that adding ``so significantly better'' would make a substantive difference, and we are concerned that it may also create confusion by opening up a large vein of debate about what ``significantly better'' meant.