Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they do not centrally hold data on the number of Parental Orders awarded each year through the Family Court for England and Wales in cases of surrogacy (1) where the child was born abroad through a commercial surrogacy arrangement, and (2) where the child was born in the United Kingdom through a surrogacy arrangement in which the mother uses her own egg.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of these orders is not recorded centrally. The current recording system only collates data on the total number of parental orders made and there is no capability to break the data into further sub-sets of the different types of surrogacy arrangements. Such information can only be obtained through individual analysis of court files at disproportionate cost since they would require a manual search of court records. The Government has no plans to record this information centrally, doing so would require fundamental changes to existing IT systems.
You will be aware that in March 2023 the Law Commission of England and Wales published a joint report with the Scottish Law Commission; “Building families through surrogacy: a new law". The report puts forward recommendations for a robust new system to govern surrogacy in the UK, including recommendations specifically for the family court system.
The Government is currently considering all of the recommendations within the report and will publish a full response in due course. If and when further action is taken in response to the report, we will consider the collection of data in this area rather than risk making piecemeal changes.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to collect and publish data on the number of Parental Orders awarded each year through the Family Court for England and Wales in cases of surrogacy (1) where the child was born through a commercial surrogacy arrangement abroad (2) where the child was born in the United Kingdom through a surrogacy arrangement in which the surrogate mother uses her own egg, and (3) where a child was born through surrogacy in this country using the egg of a third party egg donor, and not the egg of the commissioning female parent.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of these orders is not recorded centrally. The current recording system only collates data on the total number of parental orders made and there is no capability to break the data into further sub-sets of the different types of surrogacy arrangements. Such information can only be obtained through individual analysis of court files at disproportionate cost since they would require a manual search of court records. The Government has no plans to record this information centrally, doing so would require fundamental changes to existing IT systems.
You will be aware that in March 2023 the Law Commission of England and Wales published a joint report with the Scottish Law Commission; “Building families through surrogacy: a new law". The report puts forward recommendations for a robust new system to govern surrogacy in the UK, including recommendations specifically for the family court system.
The Government is currently considering all of the recommendations within the report and will publish a full response in due course. If and when further action is taken in response to the report, we will consider the collection of data in this area rather than risk making piecemeal changes.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total number of Parental Orders granted for surrogacy arrangements in England and Wales in (1) 2017, (2) 2018, (3) 2019, (4) 2020, (5) 2021, and (6) 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Parental Orders granted where children were conceived through surrogacy using the surrogate mother’s own egg is not recorded centrally.
The number of Parental Orders granted to couples bringing a child in to England and Wales where the child was conceived and carried through a commercial surrogacy arrangement abroad is not recorded centrally.
Such information could only be obtained through individual analysis of court files, at disproportionate cost.
The total number of Parental Orders granted for surrogacy arrangements in England and Wales between 2017 and 2022 can be found in the table below.
Table 1: Number of total Parental Orders made in Public and Private Law (Children Act) in the Family Courts, England and Wales
Year | Total |
2017 | 332 |
2018 | 375 |
2019 | 445 |
2020 | 425 |
2021 | 437 |
2022 | 449 |
Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly
Notes:
1) These orders relate to surrogacy and are made under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
2) Please note the 2022 figure only includes Private Law as figures for Public Law are currently unavailable whilst Family Public Law undergoes reform.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Parental Orders were granted to couples in England and Wales bringing a child in to this country conceived and carried through a commercial surrogacy arrangement abroad in (1) 2017, (2) 2018, (3) 2019, (4) 2020, (5) 2021, and (6) 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Parental Orders granted where children were conceived through surrogacy using the surrogate mother’s own egg is not recorded centrally.
The number of Parental Orders granted to couples bringing a child in to England and Wales where the child was conceived and carried through a commercial surrogacy arrangement abroad is not recorded centrally.
Such information could only be obtained through individual analysis of court files, at disproportionate cost.
The total number of Parental Orders granted for surrogacy arrangements in England and Wales between 2017 and 2022 can be found in the table below.
Table 1: Number of total Parental Orders made in Public and Private Law (Children Act) in the Family Courts, England and Wales
Year | Total |
2017 | 332 |
2018 | 375 |
2019 | 445 |
2020 | 425 |
2021 | 437 |
2022 | 449 |
Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly
Notes:
1) These orders relate to surrogacy and are made under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
2) Please note the 2022 figure only includes Private Law as figures for Public Law are currently unavailable whilst Family Public Law undergoes reform.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Parental Orders were granted through the Family Courts in England and Wales about the number of children conceived through surrogacy using the surrogate mother's own egg in (1) 2017, (2) 2018, (3) 2019, (4) 2020, (5) 2021, and (6) 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Parental Orders granted where children were conceived through surrogacy using the surrogate mother’s own egg is not recorded centrally.
The number of Parental Orders granted to couples bringing a child in to England and Wales where the child was conceived and carried through a commercial surrogacy arrangement abroad is not recorded centrally.
Such information could only be obtained through individual analysis of court files, at disproportionate cost.
The total number of Parental Orders granted for surrogacy arrangements in England and Wales between 2017 and 2022 can be found in the table below.
Table 1: Number of total Parental Orders made in Public and Private Law (Children Act) in the Family Courts, England and Wales
Year | Total |
2017 | 332 |
2018 | 375 |
2019 | 445 |
2020 | 425 |
2021 | 437 |
2022 | 449 |
Source: Family Court Statistics Quarterly
Notes:
1) These orders relate to surrogacy and are made under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
2) Please note the 2022 figure only includes Private Law as figures for Public Law are currently unavailable whilst Family Public Law undergoes reform.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to implement the recommendations of the Law Commission's report Building families through surrogacy: a new law, HC1236, on (a) establishing a new pathway for surrogacy in which intended parents can be recognised as legal parents from birth, when supported by Regulated Surrogacy Organisations, (b) establishing a surrogacy register to enable people born through surrogacy to find out about their origins, (c) removing the need for surrogates’ partners to consent to parental orders and (d) introducing up to date guidance on what counts as a reasonable expense within a surrogacy agreement.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is giving consideration to all the recommendations in the Law Commission report, Building families through surrogacy: a new law, and will publish a full response in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the report by the Law Commission entitled Building Families Through Surrogacy: A New Law, published on 29 March 2023; and whether it is his policy to reform surrogacy laws.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government is considering the reforms about surrogacy contained in the Law Commission report, Building Families Through Surrogacy, and will publish a Government response in due course. Ministers wrote to the Law Commission on 8 November 2023 to confirm that we would not be bringing forward legislation in this parliament.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to extend adoption pay to self-employed people who have a child via surrogacy.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has no plans to extend adoption pay to self-employed people who have a child via surrogacy.
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 22 June (HL8340), whether the implantation failure rate for all other treatments is therefore incomparably low relative to that to date for pronuclear transfer; or whether the number of successful treatments to date for pronuclear transfer is incomparably low; and what is the implantation failure rate for all other treatments regulated by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it has not made any assessment of whether the implantation failure rate for all other treatments is incomparably low relative to that to date for pronuclear transfer; or whether the number of successful treatments to date for pronuclear transfer is incomparably low. The HFEA routinely publish implantation success rates. The implantation failure rate is the remainder.
The following table shows the average implantation rate and implantation failure rate per embryo transferred from fresh embryo transfer using patients eggs by patient age, 2021.
Year | Implantation rate per embryo transferred | Implantation failure rate per embryo transferred |
Age 18 to 34 years old | 41% | 59% |
Age 35 to 37 years old | 33% | 67% |
Age 38 to 39 years old | 25% | 75% |
Age 40 to 42 years old | 16% | 84% |
Age 43 to 50 years old | 6% | 94% |
Source: HFEA
Implantation rates for 2021 are preliminary. This data includes IVF treatment cycles begun with the intention of having a live birth only and includes fresh embryo transfers. PGT-A/M/SR treatments and treatments using donor eggs or surrogacy have been excluded.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations of the Law Commission in its report on Building families through surrogacy: a new law and the proposals in its draft Surrogacy Bill, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to protect the rights and interests of surrogate mothers.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Law Commissions of England & Wales and Scotland published a full report of their review of surrogacy legislation, with a draft bill, on 28 March 2023. The Government is considering the report and will publish a response in due course.