One thing everyone agrees on is that the Adoption Act 1955 needs to be replaced; we have come a long way as a nation since 1955. However, it is not an easy thing to do and it is important to get it right and as a result, it still hasn’t happened. The Ministry of Justice is highly committed to ensuring that it does happen and has had two rounds of engagement recently with the public and will be providing advice to the Minister of Justice on a “package of proposals” in the first half of 2023 (see the Ministry of Justice’s page on the matter here).

We thought we would kick on and not wait.

As there is much to say about Adoption that isn’t in the current Act and can’t easily be attached to any section of it, what we are working on is a combination of a full introduction coupled with commentary under sections of the Adoption Act 1955 (and yes, we do think that it will fit into the binder, for hardcopy people!). Even if a new Act comes in this year, we will be in a good and tidy state to accommodate it. Basically, there is no downside – except for all the work our author is having to do. We are lucky enough to have Dr Debra Wilson, Associate Professor of Law at Canterbury University, working on the chapter for us. Dr Wilson researches and publishes in the area of criminal and medical law, specialising in the areas of surrogacy and assisted reproduction (and was appointed a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Law Commission’s review of surrogacy law project). She writes for Thomson Reuters’ Family Law – Adult Relationships, Family Law – Procedure, Family Law – Child Law and Adams on Criminal Law. She is a driven woman and has much of the work already in hand. We expect to have this available for the next update of Child Law III due in May.

This will make your lives easier and the gold you need will be much more accessible. Can’t wait.