UK urged to apologize for forced adoptions of unmarried mothers

Ministers are under pressure to accept the state’s role in historical forced adoption, after MPs heard from women whose babies were taken from them and urged an unqualified apology backed by records access, redress and survivor support. On 10 March 2026, the Education Committee took evidence from four survivors and campaigners, including Ann Lloyd Keen, whose son was forcibly adopted in 1966 when she was 18, and Diana Defries, whose daughter was forcibly adopted when she was 16. The committee said their testimony showed why the government should do more than issue words and should work with survivors on a timetable for action.

The scale of the practice remains stark. Between 1949 and 1976, an estimated 185,000 babies in England and Wales were taken from unmarried mothers and placed for adoption. Many of those placements were closed adoptions, with children given new names, identities and birth certificates and not told they had been adopted. The legal framework at the start of that era was the Adoption of Children Act 1949.

Campaigners say survivors still need practical remedies, not just acknowledgement. The Education Committee called for a legal duty to preserve records, a single access point for information, stronger guidance for local authorities, a nationally funded intermediary service and a dedicated mental health support pathway. The Joint Committee on Human Rights had already concluded in 2022 that the government should issue a formal apology and provide reparations, a position the campaign group Movement for an Adoption Apology has pressed for over many years.

Scotland has already moved ahead. On 22 March 2023, Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology in the Scottish Parliament and described the historic adoption practices as “unjust and profoundly wrong”. In 2025, a parliamentary answer said departmental officials had and would continue discussions with the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly to learn from their approaches, but the latest parliamentary exchange still left ministers without a timetable for an apology.