Twenty years of reports have said this. During that period, we have had six or seven Ministers with responsibility for children in different administrations. This is the first so-called comprehensive Adoption Bill we have had in 20 years, as opposed to Bills tinkering with issues the Government of the day has been forced to address as a consequence of court decisions or the 1991 Private Members' Bill that I sponsored which, for the first time, prescribed rules for the recognition of foreign adoptions. This is the first Bill dealing in a comprehensive way with domestic adoption issues.

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