The Government’s decision to speed up adoptions seven years ago was entirely laudable. And the target of increasing adoptions by 50 per cent between 2000 and 2006 seems to have been working. But is it possible that some of those children should never have been taken into care in the first place?

Face the Facts, on Radio 4 today, will highlight the dramatic increase in the number of very young children being taken into care. The number of babies taken into care rose from 1,600 in 1995 to 2,800 ten years later. They were usually between one and four years old when adopted. Adoptions for this age group trebled from 810 in 1995 to 2,300 in 2005. More older children are also being removed.

These figures do not prove that injustices are occurring. But the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming and other campaigners say that they are being contacted by more and more parents who claim to be innocent victims.

There are cases in which councils have taken a baby, but not an older child in the same family. There are cases where children are adopted faster than the courts can hear the family’s appeal. Parents found innocent on appeal are unable to get their adopted children back.

It is still not clear what is really happening, but ministers need to take the allegations seriously.

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