B, Re

In adoption proceedings, the court may proceed despite the Home Office’s failure to engage where it has been given ample opportunity to participate and further delay would prejudice the child’s welfare. The court must determine disputed age on the balance of probabilities by assessing the whole evidential picture, rather than relying on a single feature. The child’s lifelong welfare is paramount. Immigration consequences, including possible British citizenship, form part of the welfare landscape but cannot alone justify adoption.

Mr and Mrs A applied for an adoption order concerning B, a Nigerian national who had lived with them since 2009. The application was issued while B was said to be 17, but the Home Office later raised doubts about his date of birth and failed, despite repeated directions and opportunities, to intervene or provide the requested immigration information.

The court had to decide whether to adjourn, whether B’s date of birth was 17 September 1995 or 17 September 1987, and, if it had jurisdiction, whether adoption met his lifelong welfare needs.

1. The court proceeded because the Home Office had been given ample opportunity to participate and further delay was unjustified.
2. The court determined B’s age on the balance of probabilities, assessing all available evidence. No single feature, including height, was determinative. B was declared to have been born on 17 September 1995, giving the court jurisdiction under sections 49(4) and 47(9) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.
3. Under section 1 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, B’s lifelong welfare was paramount. The possible immigration benefit and acquisition of British citizenship were relevant, consistently with Re B (A minor) (Adoption Order: Nationality) [1999] 2 WLR 714, but adoption could not be used solely to secure a right of abode.
4. B’s settled relationship with Mr and Mrs A, his wishes, needs, background, consent from his father and continuing birth-family contact established that adoption was the only means of meeting his lifelong welfare needs. An adoption order was made.