The Registrar General must make traceable the connection between any entry in the registers of live-births or other records which has been marked “Adopted” and any corresponding entry in the Adopted Children Register.

Information kept by the Registrar General for the purposes of subsection (1) is not to be open to public inspection or search.

Any such information, and any other information which would enable an adopted person to obtain a certified copy of the record of his birth, may only be disclosed by the Registrar General in accordance with this section.

In relation to a person adopted before the appointed day the court may, in exceptional circumstances, order the Registrar General to give any information mentioned in subsection (3) to a person.

On an application made in the prescribed manner by the appropriate adoption agency in respect of an adopted person a record of whose birth is kept by the Registrar General, the Registrar General must give the agency any information relating to the adopted person which is mentioned in subsection (3).

In relation to a person adopted before the appointed day, Schedule 2 applies instead of subsection (5).

Before the Registrar General gives any information by virtue of this section, any prescribed fee which he has demanded must be paid.

In this section—

• “appointed day” means the day appointed for the commencement of sections 56 to 65,

• “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Registrar General with the approval of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.