The United Kingdom has made it a criminal offence for a parent or another person connected with a child to keep that child abroad beyond an agreed period without the necessary consent, with offenders facing up to seven years in prison. The new offence came into force on Friday, 6 November 2026.

The change is contained in section 137 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which amends the Child Abduction Act 1984 by adding a new section 1(1A). Under the new provision, a person connected with a child under the age of 16 commits an offence if the child was taken or sent out of the UK with the appropriate consent and is then detained outside the UK without that consent. ThisDay reports that the amendment closes a longstanding gap in the law.

The gap was exposed by a 2012 High Court ruling in R (Nicolaou) v Redbridge Magistrates' Court, which established that the existing law covered the initial removal of a child from the UK but not their subsequent detention abroad. The Law Commission later highlighted the same issue in its 2014 report on kidnapping and related offences. Until now, a parent who took a child abroad lawfully and then refused to bring them home could escape prosecution under the 1984 Act.

A circular issued by the Ministry of Justice's Criminal Law Policy Unit on Friday explained that the amendment is aimed squarely at that situation, where a child is taken abroad with permission but kept there beyond the authorised period. The new offence applies only to children taken or sent out of the UK on or after 6 November 2026, so it does not cover journeys that began before that date.

According to the Ministry of Justice's equality impact assessment, anyone convicted of the new offence could face up to seven years' imprisonment on indictment. A prosecution would also require the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions before it could go ahead.