United Kingdom Statutory Instruments

(a) for the purposes of articles 5(a), 8(c)(iii), 13(b)(i) and (c), 14(a), 16(a) and this article on 5th December 2005; and

(b) for all other purposes on 30th December 2005.

(a) inserts two new classes of county court, namely adoption centres and an intercountry adoption centres (article 5 and the Schedule);

(b) provides that an application under section 23 of the 2002 Act (varying placement orders) must be made to a magistrates' court (article 6);

(c) provides that proceedings for a Convention adoption order or an adoption order where section 83 of the 2002 Act applies must be commenced in the High Court or a county court (article 7);

(d) provides for applications for the leave of the court in certain circumstances to be made to a particular court (article 7);

(e) provides that proceedings under the 2002 Act, save for proceedings under section 23 of that Act, to vary or revoke an order must be made to the court which made the order (article 8);

(f) requires a court to consider the delay principle contained in section 1(3) of the 2002 Act whenever it is considering whether to transfer proceedings under the 2002 Act to another court (article 10);

(g) provides that an application under the 2002 Act to be made to a county court shall be commenced in an adoption centre or, if the application is for a Convention adoption order, in an intercountry adoption centre (article 13(d));

(h) requires proceedings transferred from a magistrates' court or the High Court to the county court to be transferred to an adoption centre, or if the proceedings are for a Convention adoption order or an adoption order where section 83 applies, to an intercountry adoption centre (article 15);

(i) requires the principal registry of the Family Division of the High Court to be treated as an adoption centre and an intercountry adoption centre (article 16);

(j) substitutes a reference to the 2002 Act for all references to the Adoption Act 1976 and amends a number of definitions;

In respect of special guardianship, the amending Order—

(a) provides for an application under section 14A or 14D of the 1989 Act, which would have the effect of varying or discharging an order made by the county court of its own motion, to be made to a designated county court (article 8);

(b) provides that an application for the leave of the court, under section 14C(3), to change the child's surname, or remove him from the United Kingdom, is to be made to the court which made the special guardianship order (article 7);

(c) provides that an application leave to apply for a residence order or a special guardianship order under section 29(4)(b) and (29(5)(b) respectively and any subsequent application for an order to be made to the court in which the adoption proceedings are pending (article 7);

(d) provides for the transfer, in certain circumstances, of an application for a special guardianship order under section 14A of the Children Act 1989 (article 14).

In respect of Civil Partnership Act 2004, the amending Order makes provision for a new class of county court known as a civil partnership proceedings county court which will have a similar status to divorce county courts. This Order provides (by using the new term "designated county court") that proceedings which previously had to be begun in, or transferred to, a divorce county court (other than proceedings where a cause is pending) can now be begun in, or transferred to, either a divorce county court or a civil partnership proceedings county court.

The amendments made in respect of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 take effect on 5th December, all other amendments take effect on 30th December 2005 but are subject to the transitional provisions contained in article 2.