Prime Minister statement on historic forced adoption

Thank you Mr Speaker. This morning in Downing Street, I met some of the mothers and adult adoptees harmed by historic adoption practices in England. 

They are here with us in the gallery today and I had the chance to talk with them privately.

They are the most remarkable women, and I know the whole House will want to join me in paying tribute to the extraordinary courage with which they have shared their harrowing testimonies and fought for the truth, time and again.  

I have to confess, as I said to them this morning, that I found it difficult to read the testimonies and to hear their stories. I found it particularly hard as a dad.

How much harder it must have been for them to go through that, to set out their testimonies, and tell their stories over and over again.

As they said to me this morning, something that is so intensely private, having to be public and the courage and resilience they have shown and others alongside them is absolutely incredible and I want to mark that.

Mr Speaker, what happened to them and to tens of thousands of mothers, children and families - should never have happened. 

It is a stain on our history.  

Mothers many young, vulnerable, and without support were coerced, bullied or misled into feeling they had no choice but to have their children taken from them. What a thing to do.

And Mr Speaker, these were not isolated or accidental acts.  

They were practices embedded within systems across local authorities, across voluntary and faith-based institutions, and in health and social care services, including parts of what is now the NHS.  

All institutions that operated with power over people's lives, yet they did so without compassion, without consent, and without dignity or proper safeguards. 

Mr Speaker, these practices were particularly prevalent between 1949 and 1976 but also extended beyond those years.  

In some cases, women, including those placed in Mother and Baby Homes and other institutional settings, were cut off from their families, relationships, education and employment and subjected to harsh and isolated conditions.  

Some experienced treatment that amounted to exploitation and abuse.

Mr Speaker, many were made to feel ashamed and that came through very, very powerfully in the discussions I had this morning silenced, and unworthy of care or dignity.  

Children grew up believing they were unwanted.  

Young mothers were told they were immoral - and that their babies were better off without them. 

And again, as they told me this morning, that lasts a lifetime and has a huge impact.

Ann Lloyd Keen, here in the gallery and of course formerly of this House 

Described to the Education Committee how she was stitched without anaesthetic and told and I quote  that she was told: You will remember the pain, because you've been a bad girl  

Mr Speaker, many of those harmed in this way feel a gut-wrenching sense of shame. 

Ann and others have said that stayed with her and that she still feels it today. 

And I know that this apology will not be able to lift that completely, it will help a little I hope, but it won't lift it completely.

Mr Speaker, today I say to Ann, to everyone here in the gallery with us and to all those impacted and affected wherever they are in the country and there are many, many thousands of them, including some who are have still been unable to speak about what happened to them to this day.

And I hope this statement and this apology perhaps gives some of them the confidence to speak about what happened to them because it will help in a small way.

But I say this.

The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours.  

And I say that on behalf of the whole country, I say it to every single person impacted, we are deeply and profoundly sorry.  

To the mothers who were told they were unfit who were prevented from caring for the children they desperately wanted to help and to keepand who have carried this loss for decades. 

To those who were not given the information they needed to provide informed consent, who faced pressure or coercion, and who experienced practices that were unethical. 

To the sons and daughters, the children who are now adults, who through pressure and coercion within these systems, were taken from their families and denied their identity, their history, and sometimes their safety. 

To those who grew up believing they were unwanted, some of whom were even told directly that they were second class. 

To those who have carried a burden of loss, confusion and stigma, or who experienced neglect, and abuse, without the protection or oversight that should have been their right.  

To those who have experienced lifelong uncertainty, loss, or questions around identity and belonging, or whose mental and physical health, relationships, and sense of self across their lives has been affected. 

To the fathers who were denied a voice, excluded from decisions, or separated from their children. 

To the siblings, grandparents, partners, extended families, and future generations who have lived with the consequences of these practices. 

To those who experienced harm from these practices, even while being brought up in loving homes, by their adoptive parents. 

To those who were adopted across borders or cultures who lost connections to their heritage, racial and personal identity. 

And to those from ethnic minority backgrounds who experienced racism or were treated differently within these systems and who as a group were less likely to be adopted or to grow up in stable family homes.  

Mr Speaker I am struck by the words of Debbie Iromlou who I met this morning. She says she was raised with racist views towards her own biological family. 

Mr Speaker, how do you even begin to comprehend that? 

To each and every one of those affected, we say a deep and heartfelt sorry.  

And Mr Speaker, let me be clear and unequivocal. These harms were compounded by the actions and failures of the State.  

Governments funded, enabled and relied upon systems that were not consistently or effectively overseen.  

The State did not prevent harm from continuing.  

The State bears responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised, which enabled these practices to occur.  

And for this systemic failure, I am truly sorry.  

Mr Speaker, many of those affected have suffered a further injustice. 

They've had to fight for the basic human right to know their own history. 

As Sally Ells has put it We are treated as if the information about our own lives, does not belong to us  

Debbie was told her birth mother's life would be in danger if she tried to search for her.Barriers put in place at every twist and turn.

Records have in some cases been lost, altered, or not made fully accessible to those seeking answers.  

And the whole process is painfully slow traumatic and dehumanising all over again.  

Mr Speaker we do say sorry and we mean it, but sorry is not enough.

This must also be the start of real change.

Working with those affected and their families to improve access to records..  

And to provide the care and support that people need.  

So today I can tell the House. 

We will fund the development of a national online resource, creating a single access point to locate records wherever they might be held across the country.  

We will consult on requiring existing records to be retained for 100 years, so they remain available across the lifetime of those affected. 

And my Rt Hon Friend the Education Secretary is today writing to local authorities, Regional Adoption Agencies and Voluntary Adoption Agencies, setting out the expectation that requests for records should be responded to swiftly and with compassion and consistency. 

We will expand access to funded intermediary services with particular focus on pre-1976 cases where access to support is currently most limited. 

We will establish national virtual peer-led support groups for mothers and adopted adults to improve access to ongoing, trauma-informed support across the country. 

And we will work with NHS England to ensure those affected are taken seriously when they seek help. 

This includes new support for clinicians to better understand the impact of forced adoption and respond appropriately in their care. 

The NHS England will also explore how those who wish to do so can have their experience of forced adoption appropriately recorded in their health record. 

And finally, to further recognise those affected, and ensure we learn the lessons of the past, we will also commission a testimonials project to capture the stories of those with experience of historic forced adoption practices. 

Through all of this and more, we will continue to meet regularly with those with lived experience, guided by them to get this support right, to learn from our past - and ensure that nothing like this can ever happen in this country again.  

Finally, Mr Speaker, this national apology reflects and builds on the approaches taken by Scotland and Wales, whose devolved governments have also issued apologies for these practices which we fully endorse.  

And I welcome the process underway in Northern Ireland to establish a Statutory Public Inquiry into Mother and Baby Institutions, Madgalene Laundries and Workhouses. 

I also want to thank the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Education Select Committee for all they have done to shine a light on this injustice.

But most of all, I want to thank those who have campaigned for so long to have the truth recognised, including those who are no longer with us to hear this apology they fought for.  

It should never have happened.  

And you should not have had to fight for this day to come. 

But today, finally, I do say on behalf of the State and on behalf of the nation as a whole  

We see you. We hear you. And we are truly sorry.  

And I commend this statement to the House.