Children and Family Relationships Act 2015

• Permanent Page URL

Amendment of section 2 of Adoptive Leave Act 1995

177. Section 2 of the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 is amended—

(a) in subsection (1) —

(i) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘Act of 2010’ means the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 ;

‘Act of 2015’ means the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015;

‘civil partner’ shall be construed in accordance with section 3 of the Act of 2010;

‘cohabitant’ shall be construed in accordance with section 172(1) of the Act of 2010;

‘cohabiting couple’ has the same meaning as it has in section 3(1) (amended by section 102 of the Act of 2015) of the Adoption Act 2010 ;

‘employed qualifying adopter’ means an employee who is a qualifying adopter in whose care a child (being a child in respect of whom neither the qualifying adopter, nor the civil partner or cohabitant of that qualifying adopter, is the natural mother) has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption;

‘qualifying adopter’ shall be construed in accordance with subsection (1A)(b) (inserted by section 177 of the Act of 2015);”,

(ii) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “adopting father”:

“ ‘adopting father’, subject to subsection (1A)(a) (inserted by section 177 of the Act of 2015), means a male employee in whose care a child has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption, where the adopting mother has died;”,

(iii) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “adopting mother”:

“ ‘adopting mother’, subject to subsection (1A)(a) (inserted by section 177 of the Act of 2015), means a woman, including an employed adopting mother, in whose care a child (of whom she is not the natural mother) has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption;”,

and

(iv) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “employed adopting mother”:

“ ‘employed adopting mother’, subject to subsection (1A)(a) (inserted by section 177 of the Act of 2015), means a female employee in whose care a child (of whom she is not the natural mother) has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption;”,

and

(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1):

“(1A) (a) In this Act—

(i) a reference to ‘adopting father’ shall be construed as including the civil partner or cohabitant of the qualifying adopter where the civil partner or cohabitant, as the case may be, is an employee in whose care a child has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption, where the qualifying adopter has died,

(ii) a reference to ‘adopting mother’ shall be construed as including the qualifying adopter in whose care a child (being a child in respect of whom neither the qualifying adopter, nor the civil partner or cohabitant of that qualifying adopter, is the natural mother) has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption, and

(iii) a reference to ‘employed adopting mother’ shall be construed as including an employed qualifying adopter.

(b) For the purposes of this Act, where a couple are civil partners of each other or are a same sex cohabiting couple and the couple are jointly adopting a child, or have jointly adopted a child, the qualifying adopter is—

(i) where the couple are civil partners of each other, the civil partner chosen by that couple to be that qualifying adopter, or

(ii) where the couple are a cohabiting couple, the cohabitant chosen by that couple to be that qualifying adopter.”.