Government rules out ban on Britons using overseas surrogacy

The Government has said it will not legislate to stop people living in the UK from paying for surrogacy abroad.

“The Government has no current plans to legislate to prevent people domiciled in the UK from entering into international surrogacy arrangements,” the Department of Health and Social Care said in a written answer on 20 October. It was replying to Labour MP Tracy Gilbert (Edinburgh North and Leith), who had asked whether ministers planned to ban the practice.

Ms Gilbert raised the issue in the Commons the same day. “Demand for surrogacy from the UK is leading to the exploitation of women in countries across the globe, including Ukraine, Nigeria and Mexico,” she said, and asked when legislation would come before MPs. Replying, health minister Dame Diana Johnson pointed to Foreign Office guidance on the risks of overseas surrogacy, and repeated that the Government has “no current plans to legislate”.

Reform stalled at home too

Commercial surrogacy is not allowed in the UK, but British couples can and do commission surrogacy in countries where it is legal, before applying to UK courts to become the child’s legal parents.

In 2023 the Law Commission recommended a new legal framework for surrogacy. In 2025, health minister Baroness Merron wrote to the Commission to say the Government was “unable to prioritise surrogacy reform” and did “not intend to put forward these legislative proposals at the current time”.

Critics of surrogacy, including some feminist campaigners and Christian groups, argue that it turns women’s bodies and children into objects of contract, and that cross-border arrangements leave poorer women abroad open to exploitation.