There been a significant change to the law surrounding surrogacy in the UK.
On 03 January 2019 the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Remedial) Order 2018. This will allow single parents to be able to apply for a parental order in the UK following the birth of a child through a surrogacy arrangement. Previously, such applications could only be granted to couples. In the case of Re Z [2015] EWFC 73 the then President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby found that parental orders could only be applied for by couples. This case was the subject of a previous post on this Blog.
Since then, Sir James has made a declaration that the law was incompatible with the protection of human rights under the Human Rights Act 1998. This declaration has led to the recent change in the law.
A parental order allows for a new birth certificate to be granted reflecting the parentage of the commissioning parents or, as of 03 January 2019, parent.
For further analysis, a useful article by Helen Blackburn of the International Family Law Group LLP can be found here.
