Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the ability of UK citizens to travel abroad during the covid-19 outbreak in order to register the birth of surrogate babies and accompany them to the UK.

The FCO are assisting commissioning parents who have surrogacy arrangements overseas. We appreciate that Covid-19 has brought new challenges to what can already be a difficult and complex process. Our Embassies are liaising closely with the relevant Ministries of Foreign Affairs to support commissioning parents entering countries to collect children born through surrogacy. The FCO is also working with the Home Office and Her Majesty's Passport Office to temporarily expedite applications for Emergency Travel Documents for children born through surrogacy who have been affected by travel restrictions, where the nationality requirements and other mandatory checks have been met.

We continue to advise against non-essential international travel at this time, due to the risk of travel restrictions and transport availability changing at short notice. We encourage commissioning parents who decide they need to travel to sign up to Travel Advice email alerts for their destination country, and to follow relevant social media accounts to see our latest advice