Family proceedings

The Family Division ruled on preliminary points raised in the context of applications for adoption, by prospective adoptive parents who lived in England, of Scottish children, in relation to each of whom a Scottish Sheriff had made a permanence order with authority to adopt, under ss 80 and 83 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. Among other things, the court held that the English court had jurisdiction to make adoption orders in the context of the present case, that the English court should recognise the Scottish orders and that, applying settled law, and on the true construction of s 105 of the Adoption of Children Acts 2002, as amended, the English court did not need to obtain consent of the natural parent(s) before making an adoption order, under s 47 of the 2002 Act, because the natural parents no longer had parental responsibility in respect of the children in question.