Rise in foreign surrogacy sparks calls for UK legal crackdown

The growing number of Britons using foreign surrogates to have children has raised concerns among campaigners, who warn it is introducing commercial surrogacy into the UK “through the back door”, as reported by The Times.

Between 2018 and 2024, more than 1,500 applications were made in England for legal parental orders for babies born to international surrogates. The highest number – 642 – came from the U.S., followed by Ukraine (258) and Georgia (144). Applications also involved surrogates in countries like Mexico, India, Nigeria, and Russia.

The number of annual applications more than doubled from over 150 in 2018 to more than 300 in 2024. In total, 2,174 parental order applications were made between 2018 and 2023, according to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.

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