Committee publication · Report · 27 March 2026 · HC 1713
8th Report - Historical Forced Adoption
From: Education Committee
Inquiry: Historical Forced Adoption
Government response deadline: 27 May 2026
Summary
The Education Committee's eighth report examines historical forced adoption practices in the UK (primarily 1949–1976) and their ongoing impacts on survivors. Based on testimony from four survivors and expert academics, the committee concludes that systemic coercion, removal of parental choice, and state complicity caused deep trauma. It calls for an immediate formal government apology co-authored with survivors, followed by comprehensive redress including access to adoption records, trauma-informed mental health support, and intermediary services.
Key findings
- Around 185,000 children were adopted between 1949 and 1976; mothers under 18 experienced inhumane treatment during pregnancy and labour, and were coerced into adoption with no meaningful consent; coercion was 'baked into the entire system' according to academics.
- Adult adoptees suffered lifelong psychological harm from separation, identity loss, erased medical histories, and placement in unsuitable homes; transracial adoptees endured racial naivety and neglect; 80% of mothers experienced clinically significant depression, compared to 20% of the general population.
- The state played a central role in enabling forced adoption through policy, funding, and legislation; government acknowledged this role but the committee calls for fuller public recognition of the state's central responsibility.
- Survivors repeatedly demanded the process end: they are elderly (50s–90s), many have died, and continued delay causes ongoing harm; they emphasise that an apology must be meaningful, survivor-co-authored, and accompanied by concrete redress, not words alone.
- Access to adoption records remains severely restricted; survivors report decades-long waits, excessive redactions, and infantilising treatment by agencies holding their files; international comparisons (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Australia) show better practice on redress schemes and trauma-informed support.
Recommendations
- The Government must provide an unqualified, formal apology to all affected by historical forced adoption practices, including unmarried mothers, adult adoptees, those kept but subjected to cruelty, birth fathers, siblings and other family members.
- The Government must commit publicly to an apology and undertake preliminary work—including working with survivor groups—as quickly as possible, with a clear timetable for developing and issuing the apology.
- The Government must work directly with mothers, adult adoptees and lived-experience organisations to co-author both the apology and follow-up measures; co-production should run through all subsequent commitments on accessing records, trauma-informed health support, intermediary services, research and long-term representation in policymaking.
- The Government should formally and publicly recognise that the state played a central role in enabling and sustaining historical forced adoption practices.
- The Government must listen to and engage with survivors; it should commit to a survivor engagement strategy that guarantees regular consultation and clear lines of accountability both short-term (during apology development) and long-term (ensuring survivors directly inform decision-making and hold Government accountable).
- The Government must undertake a rigorous assessment of international responses to historical forced adoptions, with special attention to the redress mechanisms introduced in Australia, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, informing a comprehensive, fully-resourced, survivor-led UK response.
Tone
CriticalTopics
safeguardingpublic-accountabilityfamily-lawmental-healthredress-remedies
Key actors
Helen Hayes, Ann Lloyd Keen, Diana Defries, Sally Ells, Debbie Iromlou, Josh MacAlister, Dr Michael Lambert, Professor Gordon Harold
Notable line
“Survivors of forced adoption must not have to repeat, in public, their harrowing stories anymore. It is clear that decisive Government action, beginning with a co-authored apology, and continuing with a programme of fully funded support for survivors, must now happen without delay …”
Key Quotes
“When I went into labour and into the hospital, I was given nothing for pain because I was told, "You will remember the pain because you've been a bad girl." I had an episiotomy and I was stitched without any local anaesthetic.”
“We would like to bring this to a close. We would like to move on with our lives and not have to revisit and relive all this again and again and again.”
“… coercion was baked into the entire system”
“… designed to punish and place - an unmarried mother is to be punished; a child is to be placed”
“I grew up as a transracial adoptee in a small, white community— as many of us did during those years—with no access to any racial mirroring or role models whatsoever.”
“The Government acknowledges that the state had a role in this and that it is not good enough to describe what happened simply as a result of the actions of society.”
“… an apology that is words alone, without action, is completely hollow, meaningless and sometimes more harmful. The Catholic Church [in England and Wales] formally apologised for their role in this area in 2016 but have done absolutely nothing since.”
“I went to the agency, and they refused to show me any file, and told me that my birth mother's life would be in danger if I tried to search for her. Over a period of four decades, I have been trying to access my file.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗