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The attitude and culture of the adoption system must be changed to put children's interests first, said health secretary Alan Milburn during the second reading of the Adoption and Children Bill this week.

"But I do not pretend that merely by changing the law we can change the culture, because the problem is more deep-seated," said Milburn.

Individual councils' performance in adoption was "too varied", he added, and the overall system, including the courts, was "too slow and bureaucratic", "opaque and often unfair".

The bill aims to overhaul the legal framework, make adoption easier, reduce delays, further regulate overseas adoptions, introduce adoption support services, and create special guardianship orders as a half-way house between full adoption and foster care.

Expected to become law next year, the government hopes the new measures will help it reach its target of increasing the number of adoptions by 40 per cent by 2005.

A key issue for adoption campaigners, such as British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering, and the National Organisation for Counselling Adoptees and Parents (Norcap), has been the right of unmarried couples to adopt jointly.

The bill maintains the current position of only allowing married couples and single people to adopt. When questioned by MPs during the debate, Milburn broadly backed the bill's proposals, but said the issue should be debated.

But BAAF chief executive Felicity Collier described the law as "outdated", drawing on recent Mori research that 68 per cent of people agree unmarried couples in stable long-term relationships should be eligible to adopt jointly.

Elsewhere, Norcap's parliamentary briefing stated: "Please try to understand that this is not about any adults' right to become an adoptive parent. It is all about the right of the child to have an enduring legal parent/child relationship with both individuals he or she sees as parents."

While two adults living together may apply jointly for special guardianship, this runs the risk that children may be subjected to special guardianship rather than adoption, when the "lifelong security" of the latter may be preferable, Collier added.

While applying to only England and Wales, the Scottish parliament voted unanimously last week to apply the bill to Scotland. It will now debate the legislation and adapt it to meet the Scottish legal system where necessary.