Follow Us on Google
The United Kingdom has introduced a new law making it a criminal offence for parents or other individuals to keep children abroad beyond an agreed period without the necessary consent.
The law, which came into effect on Friday, November 6, 2026, provides for a maximum prison sentence of seven years for offenders.
The new provision is contained in Section 137 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which amends the Child Abduction Act 1984 to address a gap in the country’s laws on international child abduction.
Under the amendment, a parent or anyone connected with a child under 16 can be prosecuted for keeping the child outside the UK without permission, even if the child was initially taken abroad legally.
A circular issued by the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Law Policy Unit on Friday explained that the change was introduced to address cases where a parent takes a child abroad with the necessary consent but refuses to return the child after the approved period.
The circular stated, “Under new section 1(1A) of the Child Abduction Act 1984, a person connected with a child under the age of sixteen commits an offence if the child is taken or sent out of the UK with the appropriate consent and, at any time after the child is taken or sent, the person detains the child outside the UK without the appropriate consent.”
The amendment follows a 2012 High Court ruling in *R (Nicolaou) v Redbridge Magistrates’ Court*, which exposed a limitation in the previous law.
The court held that the existing legislation covered the act of taking or sending a child out of the UK but did not criminalise keeping the child abroad beyond the agreed period.
As a result, a parent who travelled with a child with the consent of the other parent or a court could not be prosecuted under the law for refusing to bring the child back when required.
The Law Commission later examined the issue in a 2014 report titled *Simplification of the Criminal Law: Kidnapping and Related Offences*, recommending changes to make unauthorised parental retention of children abroad a criminal offence.
Under the new law, consent must generally come from everyone with parental responsibility for the child or from a court where necessary.
There are, however, limited exceptions. A person named in a child arrangements order as someone with whom the child is to live can keep the child abroad for less than one month without obtaining further consent.
A special guardian is also allowed to keep a child outside the UK for less than three months without the required consent.
These exceptions do not apply where keeping the child abroad would breach an order made under Part II of the Children Act 1989.
The Ministry of Justice said the new provision would only cover cases where children were taken or sent out of the UK on or after November 6, 2026.
The government also acknowledged that some cases could involve domestic abuse, stressing that the new offence would not affect existing legal protections for victims.
These include access to refuges and safe accommodation, protective injunctions and safeguards provided under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
According to the ministry’s equality impact assessment, anyone convicted of the new offence could face up to seven years’ imprisonment. However, prosecution would require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The government added that most international parental child abduction disputes would continue to be handled through civil proceedings, including cases brought under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
