Hansard

I echo Lord James's earlier comments by acknowledging that the bill is technically complex, as is reflected by the fairly large number of amendments that are before the Parliament.

Barring Adam Ingram's amendments 4A and 4B, to which you referred, Presiding Officer, all the amendments in the group were lodged by the Scottish Executive. The Executive amendments all hinge on amendment 4, the purpose of which is to bring together various provisions on adoption support services and those categories of people who have access to them. That has been done to provide a clearer and tighter structure to part 1 of the bill. I took up the issue in discussion with the Education Committee at stage 2.

In the bill as amended at stage 2, the duty of the local authority is defined exclusively as providing an "adoption support service". That description is too narrow, given the bringing together of the various forms of pre-adoption, adoption and post-adoption services. The definition would be liable to cause confusion, and it does not reflect the breadth of adoption services that a local authority is expected to provide. For that reason, we have returned to the terminology of "an adoption service" rather than "adoption support service". Under the revised structure, adoption support services now feature as a component of the adoption service, rather than defining it.

Amendment 4 takes the list of categories of people who are eligible to receive adoption support services from section 6(1) and inserts it into section 1. Accordingly, section 6 is removed by amendment 15. In addition, the list is reduced from 22 categories to 12, which must be a good thing. That has been achieved by combining categories, and no category of people has been excluded. In other words, there is no change in the policy effect of section 6. Amendment 4 also takes the list of services to which those categories of people have access out of section 6(2) and inserts it into section 1. Some of the categories that were previously listed at section 6(2) have been extracted from the list to form a subset of services called adoption support services, to which paragraph (e) of new subsection (1C), which amendment 4 adds to section 1, refers, and which is defined at new subsection (1D).

Restructuring the old section 6(2) allows different parts of the adoption service to be provided in different ways. Those parts that will be listed at proposed new section 1(1C) relate to the assessment of children who may be adopted, the assessment of prospective adopters, arrangements for placing children for adoption and the provision of information about adoption to the people who are listed at section 1(1B). I hope that everyone is entirely with me so far. Those parts of adoption support services include the provision of information, guidance and counselling for people who are affected by adoption.

In keeping with those changes, amendment 7 divides section 1 thematically into two sections in order to achieve a more logical, coherent structure. The first of those sections, "Duty of local authority to provide adoption service", provides a definition of the adoption service that a local authority has a duty to provide, with a definition of adoption support services as a component of that. The second section, "Carrying out of duties imposed by section 1", states the factors to which a local authority must have regard for the purpose of carrying out the duties that are imposed by the first of the two sections. It also states:

"A local authority may carry out the duties imposed … by securing the provision of its adoption support services by a registered adoption service."

"Registered adoption service" is then defined.

Amendment 8 transfers the regulation-making power that was previously at section 6(4), as amended, to after section 1, in keeping with the bill's revised structure.

Amendments 12, 14 and 80 amend section 4, which provides for a definition of the adoption service under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. Section 2(11) of the 2001 act provided for the definition of the adoption service, and section 2(12) provided that,

"For the purposes of subsection (11)(b) above, the making of arrangements for the adoption of a child where the proposed adopter is a relative of the child is not an adoption service."

The amendments do not change that situation, but merely insert revised definitions at sections 2(11) and 2(12) of the 2001 act to reflect the restructuring of the bill. Parents and relatives should not be included under the definition of an adoption service, as that would mean private individuals being subject to inspection by the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, which is obviously not what is intended.

Amendment 80 provides that, for a parent or relative, the making of arrangements for the adoption of a child or the placing of a child for adoption is not considered an adoption service. Amendments 18 and 20 amend section 8 to provide that a local authority must provide to a person mentioned in new subsection (1B) of section 1 information about adoption.

The remaining Executive amendments are all technical in nature and are intended to account for the changes in terminology and definition; to amend references to reflect the changes in the bill's structure; and to achieve a more logical, thematically grouped structure in the light of those changes. I ask the Parliament to support those amendments.

I am conscious of a glazed look in the Presiding Officer's eyes as I go through these amendments.