Surrogacy Law UK: What Is Legal, Parental Orders and the Six Month Deadline

UK law does not ban surrogacy, but it does two specific things: it makes every surrogacy arrangement legally unenforceable, and it criminalises commercial, for profit brokering of one (though not the surrogate or intended parents acting for themselves) and advertising that someone is looking for a surrogate or is willing to be one; legal parenthood then transfers from the surrogate through a court made parental order, not through the surrogacy arrangement itself.

Is surrogacy legal in the UK?

Surrogacy itself is not illegal. What the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985 does is narrower: section 1A makes clear that "no surrogacy arrangement is enforceable by or against any of the persons making it" (legislation.gov.uk: Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, section 1A). If a surrogate changes her mind, or if intended parents change theirs, neither side can use the arrangement itself to force the other to go through with it. Custody and legal parenthood are then worked out separately, through the parental order route described below, or through the courts under ordinary child law if a dispute arises.

What you can and cannot pay for

Section 2 makes it an offence to negotiate or facilitate a surrogacy arrangement "on a commercial basis." Crucially, the offence does not catch the surrogate herself, or the intended parent or parents acting to arrange their own surrogacy; it is aimed at a third party who profits from brokering arrangements between strangers (legislation.gov.uk: Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, section 2). A further carve-out, added in 2009, means a non-profit making body does not commit the offence merely because it charges a reasonable fee that does no more than recover its own costs of facilitating an arrangement, which is how UK non-profit surrogacy support organisations are able to operate. Paying a surrogate's reasonable expenses is not itself made unlawful by this section; the offence is about profit-motivated brokering, not about any payment changing hands at all.

Separately, section 3 makes it an offence to publish or post an advertisement saying that someone is looking for a surrogate or is willing to act as one, and this offence has no exemption for intended parents or surrogates; only advertisements by non-profit bodies within section 3(1A) are excluded (legislation.gov.uk: Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985, section 3).

Parental orders: how legal parenthood actually transfers

A surrogacy arrangement does not itself make anyone the child's legal parent. That happens only through a parental order made by a court (in England and Wales the family court or High Court, in Scotland the Court of Session or sheriff court, in Northern Ireland the High Court or a county court), transferring legal parenthood from the surrogate, and any other legal parent, to the intended parent or parents.

Section 54, for two applicants, requires: the applicants to be married, civil partners, or partners in an enduring family relationship; the gametes of at least one of them to have been used to create the embryo; the application to be made within six months of the child's birth; the child's home to be with the applicants at the time of the application and the order; at least one applicant to be domiciled in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man; both applicants to be 18 or over; and the surrogate, and any other legal parent, to have freely and with full understanding agreed unconditionally to the order, an agreement that is not effective if given less than six weeks after the birth. The court must also be satisfied that no money or benefit beyond reasonably incurred expenses has changed hands, unless the court authorises it (legislation.gov.uk: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, section 54).

Section 54A, for a single applicant, in force since 3 January 2019, runs on essentially the same conditions: the same six month deadline, the same home and domicile requirements, and the same consent structure. It keeps the genetic-link requirement, which for a single applicant means the applicant's own gametes must have been used to create the embryo, and it includes a one-off transitional provision letting an application be made within six months of the section itself coming into force, for a child already born by then (legislation.gov.uk: Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, section 54A). Before section 54A existed, a single intended parent using a surrogate had no parental order route at all and could only pursue adoption.

The six month deadline, and why missing it is not automatically fatal

Both routes state the application "must" be made within six months of the birth. In Re X (A Child) (Surrogacy: Time Limit) [2014] EWHC 3135 (Fam), Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, held that this deadline does not operate as an absolute bar. His judgment asks directly: "Can Parliament really have intended that the gate should be barred forever if the application for a parental order is lodged even one day late? I cannot think so" (judiciary.uk: Re X (A Child) (Surrogacy: Time Limit) judgment). A late application can still succeed, assessed on its own facts and against the child's welfare, but the judgment is not a green light for indefinite delay; the sooner an application is made after the deadline, the safer the position.

Reform: proposed in 2023, not enacted

The Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission jointly published a full reform report and draft legislation, "Building Families Through Surrogacy: A New Law," on 29 March 2023 (lawcom.gov.uk: Surrogacy project). The government's response has been two holding letters rather than a substantive answer: an interim response on 8 November 2023 said a full response would follow, and a second letter, from Baroness Merron on 10 April 2025, which, as the Law Commission summarises it, explains that the government is unable to prioritise surrogacy reform currently and does not intend to take the recommendations forward at this time, though it will look to consider the issue in future. As of the access date, there is no Bill, no enacted reform, and no committed timetable, so the law described above, not the Law Commission's proposals, remains what governs a surrogacy arrangement in the UK today.

Related pages

For who has parental responsibility once a parental order is made, see parental responsibility and child arrangements orders. See the UK family law hub for the full list of family law topics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is surrogacy legal in the UK?

Yes, surrogacy itself is not illegal. UK law makes surrogacy arrangements legally unenforceable, criminalises commercial, for profit brokering by third parties, and makes it an offence to advertise that you are looking for a surrogate or willing to be one, unless the advertisement is placed by a non-profit body within section 3(1A).

Can I pay a surrogate in the UK?

Paying a surrogate's reasonable expenses is not made unlawful by the Surrogacy Arrangements Act 1985. What section 2 of the Act criminalises is negotiating or facilitating an arrangement on a commercial, for profit basis as a third party; the surrogate and the intended parents acting in their own arrangement are not caught by that offence. Payments beyond reasonably incurred expenses can put the parental order at risk unless the court authorises them.

How do I become the legal parent of a child born through surrogacy?

Through a parental order made by a court: section 54 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 for two applicants, or section 54A for a single applicant. Both require a genetic link to at least one applicant (or to the sole applicant), applying within six months of the birth, a qualifying domicile, both or the sole applicant being 18 or over, and the surrogate's free consent given no earlier than six weeks after the birth.

What happens if I miss the six month deadline for a parental order?

The deadline is not an absolute bar. In Re X (A Child) (Surrogacy: Time Limit) [2014], the High Court of England and Wales held that a late application can still succeed, assessed on its own facts against the child's welfare, though this is not a reason to delay indefinitely.

Is UK surrogacy law about to change?

Not yet. The Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission published a joint reform report and draft legislation in March 2023, but the government's most recent response, in April 2025, said it does not currently intend to take the reform forward. There is no Bill and no enacted change as of the access date.