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Scotland’s Population 2009: The Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends 155th Edition

Chapter 8 - Adoptions and gender recognition

Adoptions

The Registrar General recorded 455 adoptions during 2009. This is 37 more than in 2008, but half the number recorded per year in the late 1980s, and around a quarter of the number recorded per year in the early 1970s.

Of the children adopted in 2009, 24 per cent were adopted by a step-parent and 69 per cent were adopted by non-relatives of the child. Only 14 per cent of children adopted in 2009 were aged under 2, nearly all of whom were adopted by non-relatives. By contrast, only 14 per cent of the 77 adoptions of children aged 10 or over were by non-relatives.

Gender Recognition

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 came into force on 4 April 2005. The Act applies throughout the UK and enables transsexual people to apply to the Gender Recognition Panel to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate. Successful applicants are considered from the date of issue of the Certificate to be legally of their acquired gender.

The Registrar General for Scotland has set up a Gender Recognition Register in which is registered the birth of a transsexual person whose acquired gender has been legally recognised, showing any new name(s) and the acquired gender. This enables the transsexual person to enjoy all the rights appropriate to a person of his or her acquired gender and to apply to the Registrar General for Scotland for a new birth certificate showing these new details. In 2009, there were 18 entries in the Gender Recognition Register, 2 more than in 2008. The Gender Recognition Register is not open to public scrutiny.

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