PHS FOI 2026-002491

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Date of request

24 September 2026

Date of response

02 October 2026

FOI request ID

PHS FOI 2026-002491

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• Births and maternity

Request

1. Has PHS introduced, approved or developed any field, code, flag or other mechanism allowing surrogate pregnancies or births resulting from surrogacy to be identified within national maternity datasets?
2. If yes, please provide:
   • the date it was introduced;
   • the relevant dataset(s);
   • the data definition/data dictionary entry;
   • and the number of pregnancies/births recorded using that field, by year, where disclosure permits.
3. If no such field exists, please provide copies of any correspondence, meeting minutes, briefing papers, proposals, options papers, data-development requests or other records since 3 June 2024 concerning:
   • whether surrogate pregnancy status should be recorded in Scottish maternity data;
   • proposals to introduce a surrogacy identifier;
   • the feasibility of measuring maternal or neonatal outcomes associated with surrogacy;
   • or the absence of national data on surrogate
4. Please provide correspondence between PHS and the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland bodies or territorial NHS boards since 3 June 2024 concerning the recording, monitoring or collection of data relating to surrogacy.
5. Please state whether PHS can currently produce data on maternal or neonatal outcomes specifically for surrogate pregnancies, including but not limited to mode of delivery, obstetric complications, neonatal admission, maternal readmission or postnatal mental-health outcomes.

Edinburgh Office: Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square ,1 South Gyle Crescent Edinburgh, EH12 9EB

If PHS cannot produce such data, please state which element of the data collection prevents this analysis.

To keep the request within the appropriate cost limit, for points 2 and 3 I am content initially to receive records held by the relevant maternity/data/statistics policy teams and records containing the terms “surrogacy”, “surrogate”, “surrogate pregnancy” or “gestational carrier”.