Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department has any plans to extend the restricted list of countries from which adoption is prohibited to also cover surrogacy arrangements.

The Children and Adoption Act 2006 places a statutory duty on my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education to maintain and publish a list of countries in respect of which restrictions on intercountry adoption apply. This Restricted List relates solely to adoption and is intended to safeguard children where there are concerns about the integrity of adoption processes in particular countries.

Surrogacy arrangements do not fall within the remit of the Department for Education. Policy responsibility for surrogacy, including any consideration of regulatory frameworks, rests with the Department of Health and Social Care

Accordingly, the department has no plans to extend the Restricted List to cover surrogacy arrangements.