Surrogacy in the UK

Our team of leading surrogacy lawyers can provide expert legal advice on UK surrogacy arrangements.

If you have or are considering creating your family through a UK (sometimes called “domestic”) surrogacy arrangement, it’s important to take legal advice to make sure you - and your partner if you have one - are recognised as the legal parents of your child.

We can help you understand the legal issues at any stage of your surrogacy journey whether it is before using a surrogate, during the pregnancy or after the birth of your child. 

What you need to know

Under UK law, the woman who gives birth (the surrogate) is the legal mother of the child. It is important to be aware that she is responsible for registering the child within six weeks of the birth. 

Who else is a legal parent will depend on whether the surrogate is married or in a civil partnership and, if she is single, whether fertility treatment took place at a licenced UK fertility clinic and what consent forms were signed.   

• If she is married her husband will be the legal father 
• If she is in a same-sex marriage or civil partnership, her wife or civil partner will be the other legal parent 
• If she is unmarried, the intended father is often also the legal father (assuming he is the child’s biological father) 
• However, if conception takes place at a fertility clinic in the UK someone else can be nominated as the second legal parent, for example an intended mother or a non-biological father.

Parental orders

The legal solution in the UK for resolving parenthood in surrogacy cases is a parental order. This is a court order which makes the intended parent(s) the legal parents of the child and permanently extinguishes the parenthood of the surrogate and her spouse. The intended parents must apply to the court for the order and a judge will assess their application. Once the order is made, the child’s birth will be re-registered to record the intended parents as the legal parents.  

A parental order is essential to ensure that intended parents are recognised as legal parents of their child and have parental responsibility for them.  

When making a parental order, the judge needs to be satisfied not only that making the order will be in the child’s best interests but that a number of specific criteria have been met: 

• The intended parents (or at least one of them) are genetically related to the child.  
• The child was carried by a surrogate as a result of assisted reproduction techniques (ie was not conceived naturally).  
• Either there is one intended parent (eg a single parent) or if there are two intended parents they are married/in a civil partnership or in an enduring family relationship together (same-sex couples and co-parents are eligible to apply for parental orders as joint applicants. In some circumstances separated couples will still qualify as being in an enduring family relationship).  
• Any intended parent must be over the age of 18.  
• The child has their home with the intended parent(s) and at least one intended parent is domiciled in the UK, Channel Islands, or Isle of Man.  
• The application is made within six months of the child being born (although the court has the discretion to extend this time limit).  
• The surrogate and anyone else who is treated as a legal parent at birth has given consent to a parental order being made more than six weeks after the child’s birth.  
• Any payments which were not for expenses reasonably incurred has been approved by the court.  

If intended parents do not obtain a parental order in the UK they will not be recognised as their child’s legal parents. We can help advise intended parents and surrogates to navigate the process of applying for a parental order and help legally protect parents.