§ [No. 203]
§ After Clause 72, insert the following Clause—
§ Procedure for periodic review of operation of Act
§ (" . The Secretary of State shall, within three years of the first of the dates appointed by order by the Secretary of State under section (Amendments, repeals, commencement and transitory provisions) (2) and, thereafter, every five years lay before Parliament a report on the operation of those ssctions of the Act which are in force at that time; and the Secretary of State shall institute such research as is necessary to provide the information for these reports".)
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, this is an important Amendment which we have touched on from time to time during the passage of this Bill. None of us believes that we are the repositories of all wisdom, that we get the right decisions at all points of drafting of a new Bill. Therefore, the powers of periodic review are introduced under this new clause. It requires the Secretary of State, within three years of the first appointed day made under subsection (2) of the new clause introduced by Amendment No. 210, and thereafter every five years, to lay before Parliament a report on the operation of those sections of the Act in force at that time. The Secretary of State will have a duty to institute such research as is necessary to provide the necessary information.
This will provide Parliament with an opportunity to consider the rate of progress of implementation of the Bill, particularly the development of a comprehensive adoption service, and, in due course, the effectiveness or otherwise of the new concepts of "time limits", "freeing for adoption" and "custodianship orders". The Bill already provides for 1331 reports on schemes for payments to adopters. An important advantage of the requirement to make progress reports is that it will encourage local authorities to improve the standard of their adoption services. My noble friend Lord Wells-Pestell discussed last Friday the timing of the implementation of the Bill, and in view of the lateness of the hour I hope your Lordships will agree that we need not go over the same ground again. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Lord Winterbottom.)
§ Baroness ELLIOT of HARWOODMy Lords, may I ask one question? These reviews, I hope, apply to Scotland as well as to England?
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, without exact knowledge, I cannot believe it would be otherwise.
§ Lord ELTONMy Lords. I should like to give a hearty welcome to this Amendment to the Bill, which originated with our friends in another place and which is an extremely useful, built-in safety system—and a rather unusual one. In view of the importance of the legislation, its complexity and the sensitivity of the area in which it is to have effect, to be certain that there will be pressure for Parliamentary time for considering, at regular intervals in the future its success or failure is, I think we must accept, a very considerable advance.
There will be a number of matters we shall wish to review and had this been an earlier hour I should have been tempted to enumerate them. We have already touched on them seriatim and I will not weary your Lordships by saying now what they can, but probably will not, refresh their memories about by reading Hansard tomorrow.