Alex White (Labour)

I am happy to withdraw amendment No. 51 on the basis that the Minister of State is willing to examine the matter in advance of Report Stage. I thank him for indicating his willingness to do so. The Minister of State wondered whether I was intending to stymie or alter the discretion of the authority in some way. I am not hung up on that question. If the Minister of State wants to maintain the authority's over-riding discretion when it comes to whether to give access, I think I can understand where he is coming from. If the particular set of circumstances to which I referred could be comprehended in any provision the Minister of State might consider, that might deal with it. If the Minister of State wants the authority to maintain an over-riding discretion in this matter, I do not have a huge problem with that.

I was a little disappointed with the Minister of State's response to amendment No. 53, which advocates the development of tracing services. The two amendments are being debated together because they are quite closely linked. One amendment supports the other. I am familiar with the mechanism or regime referred to by the Minister of State. I admire and welcome the substantial work that has been done in the tracing area, and the significant developments that have resulted from it. As we introduce comprehensive legislation to deal with this country's entire legal regime, and the supporting regime, in the area of adoption, it seems a pity not to set out a statutory requirement to provide for tracing services. The Minister of State acknowledged that the administration of such services is already a function of the authority, but he added he does not want to include it in the Act, which is a pity. I accept there is often a reluctance to include in statute things that can be left at the administrative level. It seems to me that people across the board — professionals and service users, if I can call them that, such as families and adopted people — will see this important Bill as the bible of our statutory and legal adoption regime.

I think the Minister of State appreciates that adoption does not finish at the moment of adoption. If a person is adopted, that is his or her lifelong status. It is important to record in the legislation the necessity and importance of tracing services. When we looked to see how we would put that into Bill, we thought the best way of doing so was to include it as a functions of the authority because then it has a statutory footing. Otherwise, we would be speaking about introducing separate sections to set out the tracing services and that level of detail would not be appropriate to legislation. However, it is appropriate that it is stated clearly and put into the heart of the legislation that there will be, and ought to be developed and further improved, these tracing mechanisms. I do not quite understand why we cannot have this included as a function, if it is already a function.