The United Kingdom has introduced a new criminal offence targeting the unlawful detention of children abroad beyond an agreed period, with offenders facing up to seven years’ imprisonment.
The new provision makes it an offence for a parent or another person connected with a child under the age of 16 to keep the child outside the UK without the required consent, even where the child was initially taken abroad lawfully.
The offence came into force on Friday, November 6, under Section 137 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which amends the Child Abduction Act 1984 to address a gap in the country’s existing child abduction laws.
A circular issued by the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Law Policy Unit on Friday explained that the amendment was introduced to criminalise situations in which a child is taken abroad with the appropriate permission but subsequently kept there beyond the authorised period without consent.
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 that the law covered both the unlawful removal of children from the UK and their wrongful detention abroad following an initially authorised 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 stated: “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 legislation by making the unauthorised retention of a child abroad a criminal offence, regardless of whether the initial departure was lawful.
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