Nearly 1,000 children were born to surrogates for UK parents in 2025. That is double the number from ten years earlier, according to figures obtained by The Guardian. About 150 of those babies were born in the UK. The rest were born abroad, mostly in the United States, Ukraine, Nigeria, Georgia, Colombia, and Mexico The Guardian.

Surrogacy is when a woman carries and gives birth to a baby for someone else who will raise the child. The people who will become the baby's parents are called the "intended parents." In the UK, the law that governs this is about 40 years old, and it is struggling to keep up.

Here is the problem. Under current UK law, the woman who gives birth — the surrogate — must be listed on the baby's birth certificate as the mother. The intended parents then have to apply for a "parental order" after the baby is born. That is the legal step that transfers parenthood to them. But the process can take months. During that time, the law says the surrogate is still the legal parent. Prof Gillian Black, co-author of the Law Commission's 2023 surrogacy review, said there have been cases where a baby needed hospital treatment and the hospital had to get the surrogate's legal consent — even though the baby was already living with the intended parents The Guardian.

In the UK, surrogates can only be paid back for their expenses. They cannot be paid a fee for carrying the baby. This is called "altruistic surrogacy." But in countries like the US, Mexico, and Nigeria, surrogates can be paid — a model called "commercial surrogacy." Some countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, restrict or ban surrogacy entirely. Because the UK does not allow surrogates to be paid, many British parents go abroad, where the rules are different.

A government body called the Law Commission published recommendations for reform in 2023, led by Prof Nicholas Hopkins with Black as co-author. The main idea: let intended parents become the legal parents from the moment of birth, so there is no gap. The review also called for tighter rules on surrogacy agencies and health checks before pregnancy. The government agreed with these ideas, and a draft bill was written. But ministers later said surrogacy reform is not a priority, and the UK government postponed the proposed changes in 2025 Progress Educational Trust.

In February 2026, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission published a joint consultation paper (LCCP 244 / SLCDP 167) proposing a new pathway to legal parenthood. A full report called "Building families through surrogacy: a new law" followed in March 2026. The Law Commission says the goal is to encourage parents to arrange surrogacy in the UK rather than going overseas. Still, there is no complete data on all UK surrogacy activity. Current numbers rely on self-reported information, as noted in a Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology briefing in February 2026 POST.

Demand is also higher than the number of available surrogates. Helen Prosser, founder of the surrogacy agency Brilliant Beginnings, said the agency had to turn away new parents because there were not enough surrogates. The increase has been driven by more gay couples wanting children, rising infertility, and changing cultural attitudes. The HFEA, which regulates fertility treatment, reported that surrogacy made up just 0.4% of all IVF treatments in the UK in 2022, with 130 surrogacy patients recorded in 2012 HFEA.

Hopps has warned that while the reform bill sits in parliament, more parents will choose overseas surrogacy, where the risk of exploitation or legal problems may be higher. Most UK parental order applications in 2025 involved children born in other countries with different levels of regulation.

The debate has also attracted international attention. Reem Alsalem, a UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, has called for surrogacy to be banned worldwide. That puts her at odds with reformers who say that regulated surrogacy inside the UK would better protect both surrogates and intended parents.

The broader context here is a system stuck between growing demand and slow legislation. The Law Commission says the number of children born through surrogacy has nearly quadrupled in a decade, but the law that governs it was written when surrogacy was rare and not well understood. The 2023 review offered a clear plan — parenthood from birth, agency oversight, health checks before pregnancy — and the government accepted it. What has not followed is time in parliament to pass the law. Each year of delay widens the gap between the law and the real families it is supposed to serve. The 2025 figures already show that more than 80% of parental order applications involved children born outside the UK. Whether the 2026 consultation papers from the two law commissions create enough political pressure to change that will depend on factors far beyond the policy itself.