Implementation of the Adoption and Children Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 - Easy Read Consultation on the Disclosure of Information Held in Adoption Records to Support the Operation of the Truth Recovery Redress Scheme

Overview

The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Act (Northern Ireland) 2026 is a new law that came into operation on 7 October 2026.  The new law will create:

• a public inquiry; and
• a Redress Scheme to provide support and payments to eligible people.

The Redress Scheme is being created to support people affected by:

• Mother and Baby Institutions;
• Magdalene Laundries;
• Workhouses;
• Some adoption arrangements; and
• Related institutions.

Under the Redress Scheme, people may be eligible to receive a payment if they were:

• in a relevant institution;
• born to a mother who was in a relevant institution; or
• the spouse / partner or child of a deceased eligible person who died after 28 April 1953.

An independent organisation - the Redress Service – will:

• receive applications;
• check official records;
• confirm eligibility;
• make decisions; and
• make payments to successful applicants.

People applying for a payment (applicants) will have to prove who they are.  They will also have to provide some information, such as the name of the institution and dates of stay.  They may also have to provide the details of another person, such as their birth mother or deceased relative.  While some people may know this information, others may need help to obtain the information needed.

In cases where the stay by a mother in an institution involved the adoption of a child, the information needed may be available in adoption records held by adoption agencies.  Those adoption agencies – Health and Social Care Trusts and voluntary adoption agencies – will, therefore, play a key role in supporting the operation of the Redress Scheme by disclosing, to people wishing to apply for a payment, the information they need to support an application.

The Department of Health (the Department) published guidance in 2023 to help adoption agencies in this role -  Access to Birth Records and Adoption Agency Case Records for Adults Impacted by Adoption – Practice Guidance.  However, the Department now considers that it also needs to make regulations to make it clear who can ask an adoption agency to disclose information from its adoption records to support an application to the Redress Service, to set out how adoption agencies must deal with such requests and the information that they must disclose except in certain circumstances. 

The purpose of this consultation is to hear your views on the arrangements and rules that we propose to include in the new regulations. 

The consultation document, consultation response form, privacy notice and equality impact screening document can be viewed on the Department's website at; Consultations | Department of Health.