Adoption and Children Act 2002

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 was an Act of Parliament that made various changes to the law on adoption. In particular, unmarried couples, including same-sex couples, were allowed to adopt (previously only single people and married couples could adopt).

The Act became law in November 2002, but did not fully come into effect until 30 November 2005. It applied to England and Wales only. Similar provisions for Scotland were introduced by the The Adoption and Children Act (Scotland) 2007. Northern Ireland has yet to implement similar legislation.