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Sorry folks yet another set of difficult documents to study and write to your MP about. The Draft Regulatory Reform Order on Proposals to modernise Civil Registration was presented to Parliament on the 22nd July 2004. It costs 15 to buy the printed version and there are over 400 pages in total much of which is probably not of great concern to most us here. However if you wish to download and print it print the relevant bits you may do so from [url]http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/aboutus/lookingahead/index.asp#0[/url] I'm told you can find the most relevant part by scrolling down to Proposal presented to parliament - select 3rd link GRO doc that explains the Regulatory Reform Order go to page 273 but I haven't put that to the test. Some of you may remember that we discussed this last year, the original proposals would have seriously impacted upon anyone searching for a birth relative in the future. I have not had a chance to see how the proposals have been changed but NORCAP seem hopeful that campaign undertaken by the adoption community as whole will have resulted in various changes. However I suspect that this Order will where adoption searching is concerned put even more power in to the hands of Adoption Support Agencies and that may be something that some of you would whish to write to your own MPs about. So far the most disturbing part of it as far as I am concerned is that the it does not apparently change its previous definition of family which is far too narrow and that it does not recognise that birth relatives have any right to search for adopted members of their family other than through an Adoption Support Agency which as you know can deem your search to be inappropriate and refuse to continue it. No doubt you will all be downloading and reading and will be giving me your initial opinions on it in the near future. I would be good if we could get a wider discussion of this going than we have had on the Access to Information Regulations. If we all study it together we might have a better chance of understanding it. Robin Harritt [url]http://harritt.net[/url] *
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For those of you who understand that there was a Regulatory Reform Order laid before Parliament on the 23 July 2004 and which is now before the Regulatory Reform Committee. You will understand that now is the time to make your representations to that Committee. You have until Friday 17 September 2004 to do so. Past representations that you have made to MPs etc including response forms, have already been looked at and as a result this Regulatory Reform Order makes many major changes to the proposals published for consultation in July of last year If you do not know how to make a representation to the Regulatory Reform Committee then please read the following web page. [url]http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/regulatory_reform_committee/rrc_pn__2003_04__14.cfm[/url] Whatever you do, please dont just ignore this. It is every bit as important as the Access to Information (Pre-Commencement Adoptions) Regulations 2004 that we just all been discussing, in its impact on adopted people and birth relatives who search for each other. The Regulatory Reform Order and an explanatory document about it can be downloaded from [url]http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/aboutus/lookingahead/index.asp#0[/url] and I have extracted the parts of the explanatory document that apply to the adoption community and put them on a webpage at [url]http://civilregistration.harritt.net[/url] and for some perspective you can see my response to last yearҒs consultation in PDF format at [url]http://rhresponse.harritt.net[/url] Robin Harritt [url]http://harritt.net[/url] *
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I have just received a notice dated 8 December 2004 from the Regulatory Reform Committee of the House of Commons to the following effect. The Regulatory Reform Committee has concluded "That the order-making power under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 should not be used in respect of the proposals contained in the proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registration of Births and Deaths) (England & Wales) Order 2004, which was laid before the House on 22nd of July, in the last session of Parliament." The Committee's full report is to be published as its Second Report of the 2004-05 Session and is expected to be published within eight working days. The text of the report will be available on the Committee's website from 3.30 pm on the day of publication. ([url]http://www.parliament.uk/reform[/url]). So it just shows what can be done, sometimes common sense wins. But no doubt the current government will try to get its intensions introduced into law in some other way. We must all remain vigilant and fight any such attempt. Robin Harritt [url]http://harritt.net[/url]