The BB team in Parliament: latest news on surrogacy law reform

Helen, Natalie and Tracey from the Brilliant Beginnings team were at the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday for the All Party Parliamentary Group on surrogacy law reform.

Scottish Law Commissioner Gillian Black announced that she had (just minutes before) heard from government Minister Maria Caulfield MP with the government’s interim response to the Law Commissions’ law reform proposals. The government’s position is that, although it is considering the proposals in detail to give a full response in due course, it will not be taking forward UK surrogacy law reform during this Parliament.

Andrew Percy MP, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on surrogacy, led the rest of the meeting, which heard powerful testimony from parents, surrogates and people born through surrogacy as to why they are being let down by the current law. 

Speakers included Brilliant Beginnings surrogate manager Tracey, as well as a mum through US surrogacy and a dad through UK surrogacy we have supported, all sharing their personal experience and expressing why surrogacy law reform is so important to them.  While the numbers affected by the bizarre deficiencies of the current law may not be enormous, it was abundantly clear how profoundly families are affected, and how desperately the law needs modernising.

Thank you to the APPG for continuing to support the cause of surrogacy law reform, and to all the brave speakers who shared their experience, particularly the children born through surrogacy (who were very keen to say that they don’t have eight legs and are just normal kids with a positive story to be proud of).

If you agree that the law should be updated, please write to your MP to tell them why.  There is guidance on how to do this here.