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• Updated: 6 February 2026

Legal rights, parental rights and child maintenance

• Updated: 14 January 2026

Legal rights for intended parents and surrogates; how legal parenthood is transferred; children born outside the UK; pay and leave rights

• Overview

  Surrogacy is legal in the UK, but if you make a surrogacy agreement it…

• Become the child’s legal parent

  You must apply for a parental order or adoption if you want to become the…

• Children born outside the UK

  If your surrogate gives birth abroad, you can only apply for a parental…

• Pay and leave

  You and your partner may be eligible for adoption pay and leave and…

This paper explores young people’s transitions and pathways through schooling, work and parenthood

• Updated: 28 August 2017

This report presents evidence from a comparative study of marriage, cohabitation, parenthood and divorce among adolescents and young people

• Updated: 22 February 2021

This report examines the changes in marriage practice in Ethiopia and explores the lived experience of married adolescents

• Updated: 22 February 2021

• Updated: 19 May 2021

Who has parental responsibility for looking after children, and how to apply for parental responsibility if you were unmarried to the mother or are not on the birth certificate

International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) global transparency fund update: 2012.

• Updated: 13 November 2012

Research looking at men and women's experiences of parenthood.

• Updated: 12 March 2015