Jason Tang interviewed on BBC Radio WM in connection with ‘switched at birth’ cases

I would say these cases are extremely rare, but with the rise of genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com, we will see more cases come to light in the future. In the past, when a baby was born, they may only briefly be held by their parents before being taken away and cared for in a hospital nursery, with only a tag on their arm or foot to identify them. It would not be hard to imagine the tag easily falling off, or not being put on immediately, and being attached to the wrong child. Nowadays, you have radio frequency IDs, the babies rarely leave their mother’s side, and parents often bring their own clothes to hospital to dress their new-borns in.

This is a difficult question to answer, as there is no precedent for it in the UK. There have been cases abroad, such in the US where the families affected have sought millions in settlement, but that is not necessarily what we can expect to see in the UK. Regardless, I would expect any damages to be substantial.