Ms Natalie Gamble:

We did some research in 2018 with Cambridge University to look at the reasons people were going overseas because this was a group of parents that was very hidden in policy and research. We found the main drivers for UK parents going overseas for surrogacy was, first, the lack of access to professional matching services and certainty around when they would find a surrogate; second, the shortage of surrogates; and, third, the lack of legal certainty in the UK. That was really important. Parents going overseas very often want to access a place where they will be recognised as their child's legal parents from birth. I hear repeatedly from parents who are at the stage of choosing how to do this that they understand the risks of a surrogacy going wrong in the UK are very small but this is their child and they cannot afford to take any risk. They want to be recognised as legal parents from birth. This comes back to how if the environment is made restrictive at home, this is just going to be driven overseas, so it is much better to make it more liberal at home and make it possible for people. That will encourage more people to stay. However, international surrogacy is not going to go away. People will continue to go overseas both from the UK and I am sure from Ireland as well.