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Recent enquiries from the UK adoption community have highlighted question on how to complete the Census2021 if an adoption order is yet to be granted. We understand that, legally, prospective adopters are obligated to register those children, who do not have an adoption order, with their birth surname and mark the children as ‘unrelated’ to the prospective parent. We understand how this will feel, but we must stress that the census has legislation surrounding it and people can be fined up to £1000 for giving false information. We are aware that this legislation fails to account for those adoptive families waiting for an adoption order. We will reach out to the Office for National Statistics to raise this issue and recommend it is addressed ahead of the next census