The full text of this document is not available online at the current time.  Fortunately one of my contacts was able to provide me with the full text of the Act so it is now possible to show the text governing the Provisional Adoption Order.

Adoption Act, 1958

7 Eliz. 2. CH 5.

Section 53

(1) If the court is satisfied, upon an application being made by a person who is not domiciled in England or Scotland, that the applicant intends to adopt an infant under the law of or within the country in which he is domiciled, and for that purpose desires to remove the infant from Great Britain either immediately or after an interval, the court may, subject to the provisions of this section, make an order (in this section referred to as a provisional adoption order) authorising the applicant to remove the infant for the purpose aforesaid, and giving to the applicant the custody of the infant pending his adoption as aforesaid.

(2) An application for a provisional adoption order may be made, in England to the High Court or the county court, and in Scotland to the Court of Session or the sheriff court.

(3) A provisional adoption order may be made in any case where, apart from the domicile of the applicant, an adoption order could be made in respect of the infant under Part 1 of this Act, but shall not be made in any other case.

(4) Subject to the provisions of this section, the provisions of this Act, other than this section and section sixteen, seventeen and nineteen, shall apply in relation to a provisional adoption order as they apply in relation to an adoption order, and references in those provisions to adoption, to an adoption order, to an application or applicant for such an order and to an adopter or a person adopted or authorised to be adopted under such an order shall be construed accordingly.

(5) In relation to a provisional adoption order section three of this Act shall have effect as if for the word “three”, both where it occurs in subsection (1) and where it occurs in subsection (2), there were substituted the word “six”.

(6) Any entry in the Registers of Births, the Register of Births or the Adopted Children Register which is required to be marked in consequence of the making of a provisional adoption order shall, in lieu of being marked with the word “Adopted” or “Re-adopted” (with or without the addition of the word “(Scotland)” or “(England)” be marked with the words “Provisionally adopted” or “Provisionally re-adopted”, as the case may require.

In subsection (4) there is a reference to three sections that are not applied to a provisionally adopted child.  The three sections deal with issues of inheritance and citizenship and are as follows:

Section 16

(1) Where, at any time after the making of an adoption order, the adopter or the adopted person or any other person dies intestate in respect of any real or personal property (other than property subject to an entitled interest under a disposition to which subsection (2) of this section does not apply), that property shall devolve in all respects as if the adopted personal were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person.

(2) In any disposition of real or personal property made whether by instrument inter vivos or by will (including codicil) after the date of an adoption order –

a) any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopter shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as, or as including, a reference to the adopted person;

b) any reference (whether express or implied) to the child or children of the adopted person’s natural parents or either of them shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as not being, or as not including, a reference to the adopted person; and

c) any reference (whether express or implied) to a person related to the adopted person in any degree shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as a reference to the person who would be related to him in that degree if he were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person.

(3) Where under any disposition any real or personal property or any interest in such property is limited (whether subject to any preceding limitation or charge or not) in such a way that it would, apart from this section, devolve (as nearly as the law permits) along with a dignity or title of honour, then, whether or not the disposition contains an express reference to the dignity or title of honour, and whether or not the property or some interest in the property may in some event become severed therefrom, nothing in this section shall operate to sever the property or any interest therein from the dignity, but the property or interest shall devolve in all respects as if this section had not been enacted.

(4) The references in this section to an adoption order include references to an order authorising an adoption made under the Adoption of Children Act (Northern Ireland), 1950, or any enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the time being in force.

Section 17

(1) For the purposes of the application of the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, to the devolution of any property in accordance with the provisions of the last foregoing section, and for the purposes of the construction of any such disposition as is mentioned in that section, an adopted person shall be deemed to be related to any other person being the child or adopted child of the adopter or (in the case of a joint adoption) of either of the adopters-

(a) where he or she was adopted by two spouses jointly, and that other person is the child or adopted child of both of them, as brother or sister of the whole blood;

b) in any other case, as brother or sister of the half-blood.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (2) of the last foregoing section, a disposition made by will or codicil shall be treated as made on the date of the death of the testator.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in the last foregoing section, trustees or personal representatives may convey or distribute any real or personal property to or among the persons entitled thereto without having ascertained that no adoption order has been made by virtue of which any person is or may be entitled to any interest therein, and shall not be liable to any such person of whose claim they have not had notice at the time of the conveyance or distribution; but nothing in this subsection shall prejudice the right of any such person to follow the property, or any property representing it, into the hands of any person, other than a purchaser, who may have received it.

(4) Where an adoption order is made in respect of a person who has been previously adopted, the previous adoption shall be disregarded for the purposes of the last foregoing section in relation to the devolution of any property on the death of a person dying intestate after the date of the subsequent adoption order, and in relation to any disposition of property made, or taking effect on the death of a person dying, after that date.

(5) The references in this section to an adoption order shall be construed in accordance with subsection (4) of the last foregoing section.

Section 19

(1) Where an adoption order is made in respect of an infant who is not a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, then, if the adopter, or in the case of a joint adoption the male adopter, is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, the infant shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies as from the date of the order.

(2) The references in this section to an adoption order include references to an order authorising an adoption under the Adoption of Children Act (Northern Ireland), 1950, or any enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the time being in force.