Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department holds data on the age of adopters in cases where children are adopted from care; and whether that data can be cross-tabulated with the age of the child at adoption and the sex composition of the adopter or adopters.

The department publishes information on the sex of adopters, including a breakdown by legal status, in Table E3 of the ‘Children looked after in England, including adoptions’ statistics release, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/fast-track/cf632a88-23f2-4d70-5463-08de072d13df. The department does not collect information on the age of adopters.

In the year ending 31 March 2025, 1980 children were adopted by different-sex couples and 450 children by single-adopters. Of the 610 children adopted in the year ending 31 March 2025 by same-sex couples, 410 children were adopted by male same-sex couples and 200 were adopted by female same-sex couples.

Figures on the number of children looked after who were adopted, broken down by the child’s age on adoption and whether the adopters were same-sex couples, different-sex couples or single adopter can be found in the attached table.