Draft Human Fertilisation and Emryology Act 2008 (Remedial) Order 2018 Draft Human Fertilisation and Emryology (Parental Orders) Regulations 2018

Debate between Andrew Percy and Peter Kyle

Tuesday 18th December 2018 General Committees

[Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. On behalf of the all-party parliamentary group on surrogacy, I thank the Minister for the positive way in which she has engaged both with us as a group and with the surrogacy community. I also thank her for the positive language that she has used about surrogacy on numerous occasions, which is new from a Government Minister. Going back decades now, I think there has always been something of a nervousness in Government about the language used around surrogacy, but the Minister has been absolutely clear that surrogacy is a positive way of creating families, often for less conventional relationships. We thank her for that.

We also thank the Minister specifically for the NHS guidance that she issued through the Department, which several surrogates have already made use of. Imagine being a surrogate who is excited about a new birth but is forced by the hospital to hand over the child in a hospital car park or, worse still, is unable to see their own child after the birth. There is clearly still more work to do in this department, but this is clearly a positive step forward, and the surrogacy community welcomes it.

Similarly, I thank the Minister for the Government funding of the Law Commission review, which the APPG is very engaged in. We have taken evidence over the last few weeks from lawyers, intended parents, surrogates and others. This afternoon we will take evidence from Tom Daley, who went overseas with his partner because of the problems in the UK with obtaining a parental order. There is a lot more to be done on parental orders, particularly on the time it takes to get one in the UK. We look forward to those issues being addressed as part of the Law Commission review.

The APPG and the surrogacy community are happy that the draft order has at last been laid. It comes out of the September 2015 case of Re Z, in which the court was unfortunately unable to grant a single male applicant a parental order. There have been delays, some of which came about as a result of potential unintended discrimination that could have come out of the original wording. However, it was absolutely clear when the Minister laid the draft order before Parliament on 19 July this year that her language was very positive. That is to be welcomed.

As I said, laying the order has taken a long time, which has resulted in some people who would by now have become parents being unable to do so, while others have been forced overseas. It has also put the courts in a difficult position in several cases.

[Peter Kyle (Hove) (Lab)]

Does the fact that people have to travel abroad not indicate that this option is available to only those with resources and money? Vast swaths of the population who do not have the resources to travel abroad do not actually have access to surrogacy.

[Andrew Percy]

That is true in part. There is no doubt that, if people want to go to a model place for surrogacy such as California, it is a very expensive option, although the actual costs paid to the surrogate are generally the same as those in the UK; it is the medical costs and all the rest of it that pushes costs up. People are forced to go, if not to the United States, then to regimes in the world where the systems and protections for the surrogate, let alone the intended families, may not be of a standard that we would be comfortable with. That is why it is vital that we change the law in this country, so that surrogacy can become so much easier for those denied it at present.

Several other cases have come before the courts in which applications for parental orders have unfortunately had to be stayed, or other powers, such as wardship, have had to be used. Although we welcome the draft order, there are still some issues for single people moving forward, which I hope the Minister will confirm will be addressed as part of the Law Commission review. For example, under the remedial order, some single people will still be excluded from being parents, while a parent who is not genetically linked to the child will be unable to be granted a parental order. Similar issues could arise if an intended parent dies during the course of a surrogate pregnancy.

There are also sad cases of, for example, women who have received cancer treatment, leaving them unable to use their own uterus or eggs. If they are single and use egg donation, they will not be able to receive a parental order. More work needs to be done to address some of those challenges, and I hope that will be undertaken as part of the Law Commission review.

I thank the Minister again for the incredibly positive way she has engaged. The draft order will enable more people to form families—it will enable more individuals to become part of the surrogacy family, to register with organisations such as Surrogacy UK and to get on with building their families.