The Disclosure of Information

AuthorNasreen Pearce/Richard Budworth
Pages257-269

Chapter 20


The Disclosure of Information

INTRODUCTION

20.1 ACA 2002, ss 56–65 regulate the information that adoption agencies must keep in relation to an adopted person and information they are required to disclose to an adult adopted person; that which they may release to an adult adopted person, birth families and others; and information that the court is required to disclose to an adult adopted person. Pursuant to those sections, the following regulations provide for or authorise the circumstances in which, how and to whom disclosure should be made:

▪ the Adoption Information and Intermediary Services (Pre-commencement

Adoptions) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/890), as amended by SI 2005/890 and 2015/1685 (AIIS(PCA)R 2005);
▪ the Adopted Children and Adoption Contact Registers Regulations 2005

(SI 2005/924) (ACACRR 2005); and
▪ the Disclosure of Adoption Information (Post Commencement Adoptions)

Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/888) (DAIR 2005).

20.2 The first of these regulations relates to adoptions before 30 December 2005 and is dealt with in Chapter 17; the requirements of the second can be found in Chapter 19. The DAIR 2005 discussed in this chapter deal with adoption after
30 December 2005.

20.3 All applications for disclosure relating to adoptions after 30 December 2005 must now be made through the appropriate adoption agency and not to the Registrar General. This is the only gateway.

258 Adoption Law: A Practical Guide

INFORMATION TO BE KEPT BY ADOPTION AGENCIES

20.4 DAIR 2005, Pt 1 regulates the information (referred to as ‘s 56 information’) which an adoption agency which placed the child for adoption must keep and store in secure conditions or to which the case records have been transferred in relation to an adopted person, and the form and manner in which such information should be kept. The records must include information which has been supplied to the agency by a natural parent or relative or other significant person in the adopted person’s life; the adoptive parent(s) or other persons post-adoption; the adopted person; the Registrar General pursuant to a request made by the agency or given to the agency relating to an entry on the Adoption Contact Register. However, any s 56 information kept by the adoption agency which, whether taken on its own or with other information, would enable a person to be identified and information received or kept by the agency from the Registrar General or an entry in the Adoption Contact Register is classified under ACA 2002, s 57 as ‘protected information’.

20.5 The records must be kept for at least 100 years (DAIR 2005, regs 4 and 5). See also NMS 2014, Standard 27.

General Data Protection Regulation

20.6 The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) extends the data rights of individuals (data subjects) and places a range of new obligations on organisations that process EU residents’ personal data. The Data Protection Act 2018 modifies the GDPR and applies a broadly equivalent regime known as the ‘applied GDPR’ (see www.itgovernance.co.uk/dpa-2018).

Transfer of information

20.7 An adoption agency is permitted to transfer a copy of the child’s case records or the case records of the prospective adopter(s) or part of that record to another adoption agency when it considers this to be in the interests of the child or the prospective adopter(s). Such a situation would arise, for example, if the adoptive family moves home from one area to another. The agency must keep a written record of any such transfer (AAR 2005, reg 43).

20.8 Where a registered adoption agency intends to cease to act or exist as such, it must transfer any s 56 information it holds in relation to a person’s adoption:

(a) to another adoption agency, having first obtained the approval of the registration authority for such transfer;

(b) to the local authority in whose area the society’s principal office is situated;

(c) in the case of a society which amalgamates with another registered adoption society to form a new registered adoption society, to the new body (DAIR 2005, reg 7(1)). Where the activities of a registered adoption society that transfers its records to another adoption society were based principally in the area of a single local authority, it must give notice of the transfer to that authority (DAIR 2005, reg 7(2)).

20.9 An adoption agency to which the information is transferred must give written notification of the transfer to the registration authority (DAIR 2005, reg 7(3)).

PERMITTED GENERAL DISCLOSURE

20.10 The disclosure of s 56 information by an adoption agency is either discretionary or mandatory (ACA 2002, s 58).

Discretionary disclosure

20.11 The adoption agency has a discretion to disclose s 56 information:

(a) that is not ‘protected information’ as it thinks fit for the purposes of carrying out its functions as an adoption agency (ACA 2002, s 58(2); DAIR 2005, reg 8(1)). This discretion enables the agency to share information provided by the birth family and others who may have played a significant role in the child’s life with the adoptive parent(s) and vice versa, subject of course to the consent of the interested parties. The information given to the birth family will include information about how the child is getting on at school and with the adoptive family, and any achievements of the child. Information passed on to the adoptive parent(s) may include medical information relating to the birth family, and other information which may assist the adoptive parent(s) with the care of the child;

(b) within which there is protected material, to:

(i) a registered adoption support agency or another adoption agency which provides services to the adoption agency in connection with any of its functions under ACA 2002, s 61 or s 62 (see Chapter 18); or

(ii) a person who is authorised in writing by the Secretary of State to obtain information for the purposes of research (DAIR 2005, reg 8(2)).

(c) in pursuance of an...

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