Ms Sarah Groarke:

I thank the Vice Chairman for the questions. She asked about retrospective arrangements and in responding, I would like to give a frame for the recommendations we have made. We want to bring all those children, whether they were born prior to the commencement of the Bill or will be born in the future, to same level. We must ensure those children are not experiencing differential treatment on the basis of when they were born and the framework in which they were born. In providing for retrospective surrogacy, we noted that provision was made for the making of retrospective applications in the original drafts of the Children and Family Relationships Bill in 2014 It is not clear why those provisions were not carried through to the 2022 Bill.

We see precedent for providing for retrospective recognition of parentage in the Children and Family Relationships Act in terms of donor-assisted human reproduction. The international standards recognise that parentage cannot be determined on the basis of the same standards that might apply in future, under the framework of the 2022 Bill, because those standards were not previously in place. Adapted criteria are required to be placed there for those applications.

In terms of international surrogacy arrangements, we have recommended in our observations that a post-birth framework should be put in place. As I mentioned previously, a framework must be put in place to recognise the relationship between a child and his or her parent arising from an international surrogacy. That does not mean we should automatically recognise parentage. The UN special rapporteur on the sale of children and the Verona principles have made clear that a process needs to be put in place to give discretion to a court to examine what is in the best interests of the child in such a situation.