Adoption and Children Act 2002

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 is a law that allows unmarried or married people and same-sex couples in England and Wales to adopt children. The reforms introduced in the Act were based on a comprehensive review of adoption and were described by The Guardian as "the most radical overhaul of adoption legislation for almost 30 years".

The Act also allows for the introduction of special guardianship, a legal status that allows for a child to be cared for by a person with rights similar to a traditional legal guardian, but without a requirement for absolute legal separation from the child's birth parents. Special guardianship provisions were passed into law by statutory instrument in 2005 and came into force in 2006.

The Act also introduced a procedure to allow people to trace relatives placed for adoption through an intermediary if both persons are over 18.

An equivalent Act was passed in Scotland in 2007.

Gay adoption
Section 44 of the Act, which allowed gay couples to adopt, was subject to considerable controversy and faced strong opposition in Parliament: on 16 October 2002, the House of Lords, during consideration of the Bill, passed with 196 votes in favour and 162 against an amendment which would have only allowed straight married couples to adopt. On 4 November, the House of Commons voted 287—233 to disagree with the change proposed by the Lords; the next day the House of Lords, by a vote of 215 to 184, unexpectably decided not to insist on its amendment, allowing the Bill to immediately receive Royal Assent.