IN any decision about adoption, the interests of the child must be paramount.

There is a good reason why the Scottish Government and Parliament legislated six years ago to allow same-sex couples to adopt jointly, and why every adoption agency in Scotland, except St Margaret's, welcomes such couples for assessment ("Charity's legal bid against gay adoption", The Herald, June 10). It is that the research evidence shows clearly that children do as well with same-sex parents as they do with mixed-sex parents.

There are several thousand children looked after by local authorities in Scotland who could benefit from adoption, but only a few hundred adoptions per year. Glasgow City Council is quite right to encourage adoption applications by same-sex couples as one way to provide more looked-after children with permanent families and homes.

Any charity in receipt of taxpayers' money to provide public services, as St Margaret's is, must do so without discrimination – after all, people regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, and so on pay their taxes.

St Margaret's sister adoption agency in Edinburgh, St Andrew's, has welcomed same-sex couple applicants for several years.

Its annual review 2009/10 subsequently reported: "Our informal links with the church remain strong, and we are still the agency of choice for most Catholics wishing to adopt."

St Margaret's certainly provides a valuable service, and we hope that it will continue to do so, with full regard to the best interests of children, and in compliance with the law.

Tim Hopkins,

Equality Network,

30 Bernard Street,

Edinburgh.