[2025] UKUT 00352 (IAC)

We do not accept that, when considering whether the requirement that the Appellant was adopted due to the inability of her Birth Parents to care for her, the Judge was required to carry out some form of ‘forward looking’ analysis. The plain language of the Rule required the Appellant to establish that she was “adopted due to the inability of [her] original parents or current carers to care for [her]”. The focus is, as Mrs Nolan submits, upon the position as it was at the time of the adoption. That much is clear from the use of words “was adopted due to”. Put another way, it is the reasons for the adoption at the time of the adoption that are important. Documents that post-date the adoption itself are capable of shedding light on the reasons for the adoption, but the first limb of para. 301(ix) is the requirement to establish that the child was adopted due to the inability of the original parents (or current carer(s)) to care for the child.