Genealogy Chat

Q. What changes have been proposed to the law on adoption? A. One of the provisions of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 allows for an electronic index to the Adopted Children Register to be introduced at the FRC to replace the existing paper index. There are two main reasons for the introduction of an electronic index, namely: to prevent random searches of the index of adopted children under the age of eighteen to obtain information that may lead to disruption to an adopted child's placement, and to provide an enhanced search facility in the indexes for applications for certificates of adopted children now over the age of eighteen. The Office for National Statistics is currently involved in a massive data capture exercise from the paper Adopted Children Register in order to provide this electronic index. Due to the large volume of data to be captured, the index will have to be introduced in stages, with the first batch currently timetabled to be available in September 2005. At this stage it is expected that this will form a complete electronic index from the mid-to-late-1960s to date, depending on resources, with a paper index remaining prior to that period. As earlier years are added to the electronic index the paper equivalent will be removed from the Public Search Room.