Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many babies were born in each of the past three years to surrogate mothers; and in how many cases the surrogate mother has claimed parentage of the child contrary to the wishes of the genetic parents.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) publishes annual data, available on their website, which includes births from surrogacy at United Kingdom licensed fertility clinics. The following table shows the number of live births from in vitro fertilisation among surrogates at UK licensed fertility clinics in each of the last three years for which information is available:

Source: HFEA dashboard data, available at the following link:
https://www.hfea.gov.uk/about-us/hfea-dashboard/

Data on the HFEA dashboard is rounded to the nearest five to ensure patient confidentiality. The data is as recorded by the HFEA on 1 May 2025, and reflects the data on this date, and may change over time. This does not represent the total number of births from surrogacy in the UK, only those that have been carried out within UK licensed fertility clinics.

Information is not held by the Government on cases where the surrogate mother has claimed parentage of the child contrary to the wishes of the genetic parents.

Question

To ask the Leader of the House whether she has contacted the Permanent Secretaries at the Foreign Office, the Department for Education, and the Department for Health and Social Care to ask for explanations as to why these departments have failed to answer questions for written answer, tabled in May but still awaiting an answer in July.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

I have personally reminded Ministers of the 10 day target for their department throughout my time as Leader. As well as this my office routinely contacts departments and Secretaries of State who have breached the target, reminding them of their duty to ensure the target is met and to ascertain the reasons why deadlines have been missed. I have not at present written to any Permanent Secretaries but I will do so if the issue persists.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the percentage of GDP which the government of Belgium has spent on defence over the last five years in accordance with their obligations as a NATO member; and what representations they have made to that government regarding meeting pledged defence spending targets under NATO, including the new target of 5 per cent.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)

The North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) collects defence expenditure data from Allies and publishes it on a semi-regular basis. NATO spending reports are published online here: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm. At the NATO Summit, Allies committed to investing 5 per cent of gross domestic product annually on defence and security, composed of 3.5 per cent core defence spending and 1.5 per cent security and resilience spending, by 2035. We encourage all Allies to meet their NATO commitments.