On 9th December 2013 the Government put forward an amendment to the Children and Families Bill 2013 by adding a new clause which recognises descendants of adopted people and others as having a prescribed relationship under Section 98 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The regulations came into force on 31 October 2014.

The following information has been prepared for prescribed relatives of adopted people to explain their rights to apply for access to an intermediary service under these new provisions. An intermediary agency is able to obtain information from a range of sources including the adoption agency, the Registrar General (RG) and the courts (in addition to publicly available information) to enable it to trace relatives. This also provides answers to some commonly asked questions about the recent change in the law and explains what prescribed relatives can do to apply for the service and information they need. The Q&A is in two parts. The first part explains the new provisions and the second part provides information for relatives who already have some identifying information about their relative who was adopted.

Download the both parts of the Q&A here.

If you have any comments or further questions about the Q&A then please email these to julia.feast@baaf.org.uk