The United Kingdom has introduced a new law making it a criminal offence to detain children abroad beyond an agreed or authorised period without the required consent, with offenders facing up to seven years in prison.
The provision applies to parents and other individuals connected with children under the age of 16. It makes it an offence to keep a child outside the UK without appropriate consent, even if the child was initially taken abroad lawfully.
The new offence came into force on Friday, 6 November, under Section 137 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which amends the Child Abduction Act 1984.
A circular issued by the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Law Policy Unit on Friday said the amendment was introduced to address a gap in existing legislation concerning children who were lawfully taken abroad but subsequently kept overseas beyond the authorised 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.”
It added that the amendment was intended to ensure the law covered both the unlawful removal of children from the UK and their wrongful detention abroad after an initially lawful departure.
According to the circular, the legislative change followed a gap highlighted by the High Court’s decision in R (Nicolaou) v Redbridge Magistrates’ Court in 2012.
Before the amendment, a parent who took a child abroad with the consent of the other parent or permission from a court could not be prosecuted under Section 1 of the 1984 Act solely for keeping the child overseas beyond the agreed or authorised period.
The circular explained: “As a result, where a parent had taken a child abroad lawfully (for example with consent from the other parent or person with similar responsibility, or with the court’s permission), it was not an offence under section 1 of the 1984 Act to detain the child abroad beyond the agreed or authorised period.”
The new provision therefore extends the scope of the UK’s child abduction laws to cover situations where consent was initially granted but later exceeded or withdrawn.
