[Robin Harritt]

This is part of a communication that I received from NORCAP yesterday

see http://www.norcap.org.uk/cr for details of what this is about.

Robin

***********************************************

URGENT – CONSULTATION PERIOD ENDS 24.10.03


Civil Registration – Delivering Vital Change



.... An earlier consultation achieved almost 1,000 responses; it is hoped that more than this number will respond on this key issue....


.... if you only have time to write a brief reply yet want to support the thrust of the argument being made by BAAF and NORCAP you may wish to use the paragraphs below as a template.



Question 102 :

The proposal would infringe the right of people to continue to use all the information currently given on a certified copy of a birth, marriage or death entry, to search in a responsible manner for relatives from whom they have been separated by adoption.



Supplementary question S6 :

Family relationships need to be broadly defined to include relatives by blood and by adoption for all individuals who are affected by adoption.



Supplementary question S7:

Adoption Support Agencies as defined by the Adoption and Children Act should be de facto authorised users of the service and like those engaged in the prevention and detection of crime should be allowed to access full information without needing to have gained the consent of the subject. Without this provision Adoption Support Agencies will be seriously impeded in fulfilling duties placed upon them by section 98, Adoption and Children Act 2002.


You can email your response to registration.review@ons.gov.uk

[Mrs Buckley]

Does anyone know what happened about this? Were we not supposed to have had a new Regulatory Reform Order on Civil Registration by now?

Buckley

[dafydd]

Probably we'll see something by the end of this parliamentary session, maybe by the end of this month before the summer recess, who knows.

It will probably, if it becomes law, put a stop to anyone being able to search on their own behalf and mean that they will be required to obtain the services of an Adoption Support Agency if they wish to find a natural parent or birth relative. So we'll all be paying hundreds possibly even thousands of pounds for work that we could currently do ourselves.

But you lot out there are so apathetic that you'll do nothing about it, only moan when its too late.

[Robin Harritt]

See the following ministerial statement at

http://www.publications.parliament.u...t/40329-47.htm

foot of page

<quote>

29 Mar 2004 : Column WS55
Civil Registration

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey): My honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.

The House will wish to be aware of developments on the Government's plans for modernising civil registration.

On 10 July 2003 the Government published the consultation paper Civil Registration: Delivering Vital Change. This set out our proposals to reform civil registration in England and Wales using powers in the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. The proposed changes will make it easier both for citizens to deal with Government at key points in their lives and in the lives of their families and for the Government to modernise this public service by exploiting improved information and communication technology. I am pleased to be able to tell the House that there were almost 3,400 responses to the consultation document. This indicates the very real interest among a wide range of stakeholders—registration practitioners and managers, the public and other interested organisations—in this area of reform.

Our intention was to introduce a regulatory reform order in this Session of Parliament. This remains the case in respect of provisions relating to registration of births and deaths and access to birth and death records. I have however decided to postpone the presentation of provisions relating to marriage till early in the next Session. The splitting of the proposals in this way will ensure that the momentum for reform is sustained, while at the same time providing an opportunity for the second regulatory reform order to take account of Parliament's wishes on the civil partnership legislation.

This strategy will not hinder the Government's plans for implementation that will begin in 2005 with improved information technology to forward registration information to the Registrar General and the structural reform of the local registration service.

<end of quote>

Please be aware that this law along with the access to information regulations and the regulations for registering as an adoption support agency, will effectively restrict anyone looking for a birth relative to using an Adoption Support Agency and paying through the nose for the unnecessary and expensive skills of social work and counselling staff whether or not required. The only skills likely to be lacking in the new ASAs are those skills concerned with tracing.

Robin Harritt

http://harritt.net

For the search engines

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

Consultation on Access to Information & Intermediary Services

Adoption and Children Act 2002 Implementation

Draft Regulations and Guidance for Consultation

* Access to information (Pre-commencement Adoptions)

* Access to Information (Post-commencement Adoptions)

* The Registrar General’s Functions

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]].

[Robin Harritt]

Sorry folks yet another set of difficult documents to study and write to your MP about. The Draft Regulatory Reform Order on Proposals to modernise Civil Registration was presented to Parliament on the 22nd July 2004. It costs £15 to buy the printed version and there are over 400 pages in total much of which is probably not of great concern to most us here. However if you wish to download and print it print the relevant bits you may do so from

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/ab...ad/index.asp#0

I'm told you can find the most relevant part by scrolling down to Proposal presented to parliament - select 3rd link GRO doc that explains the Regulatory Reform Order go to page 273 but I haven't put that to the test.

Some of you may remember that we discussed this last year, the original proposals would have seriously impacted upon anyone searching for a birth relative in the future. I have not had a chance to see how the proposals have been changed but NORCAP seem hopeful that campaign undertaken by the adoption community as whole will have resulted in various changes. However I suspect that this Order will where adoption searching is concerned put even more power in to the hands of Adoption Support Agencies and that may be something that some of you would whish to write to your own MPs about.

So far the most disturbing part of it as far as I am concerned is that the it does not apparently change its previous definition of family which is far too narrow and that it does not recognise that birth relatives have any right to search for adopted members of their family other than through an Adoption Support Agency which as you know can deem your search to be inappropriate and refuse to continue it.

No doubt you will all be downloading and reading and will be giving me your initial opinions on it in the near future. I would be good if we could get a wider discussion of this going than we have had on the Access to Information Regulations. If we all study it together we might have a better chance of understanding it.

Robin Harritt

http://harritt.net

*