Ms Natalie Gamble:

We have had a lot of debates on this with regard to donor conception. The trouble with recording it on a birth certificate is that a birth certificate is a public document. It is a document that people potentially have to produce to their school, university or employer. People may not want to disclose to those people the circumstances of their conception. It is important that this is considered when we think about what is recorded on a birth certificate. At the same time we have a register of information in the UK for donor-conceived children who have a right ask for information about the identity of the gamete donor who helps lead to their conception. The proposal of the Law Commission is to have something similar for surrogacy. At present it works because there is an initial birth certificate the child could ultimately ask for in the same way as an adopted child could, for example. In future there will be birth certificates that are immediately issued with the intended parents' names on it. The replacement for the existing provision and access to information will come through the national surrogacy register. Information about the identity of the surrogate will be there and available for the child. It will be a private piece of information rather than something recorded publicly on a document the world will see.