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February–May 2019

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2019

Frank Cranmer*
Affiliation:
Fellow, St Chad's College, Durham Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University

Extract

The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill, originally introduced by Tim Loughton MP as a private Member's bill in the Commons, received Royal Assent on 26 March and came into force two months after it was passed. Section 1 empowers the Secretary of State to amend by regulations the Marriage Act 1949 to provide for a central register of marriages in England and Wales ‘which is accessible in electronic form’. Section 2 requires the Secretary of State to amend the Civil Partnership Act 2004 so that opposite-sex couples become eligible to form a civil partnership in England and Wales – and the amending regulations must be in force no later than 31 December 2019. Section 3 requires the Secretary of State to report on whether the law should be changed to allow the registration of pregnancy losses which cannot be registered as stillbirths under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 and section 4 requires the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the preparation of a report on whether, and if so how, the law should be changed to enable or require coroners to investigate stillbirths.

Type
Government and Parliamentary Report
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2019 

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References

1 As noted in the last two Reports, the Supreme Court ruled in R (Steinfeld and Keidan) v Secretary of State for International Development [2018] UKSC 32 at para 62, that the bar on opposite-sex civil partnerships in sections 1 and 3 of the 2004 Act was incompatible with Article 14 ECHR (discrimination), in conjunction with Article 8 (respect for private and family life). The Prime Minister subsequently announced that the Government would remove it.

2 On the day that the Bill received Royal Assent, the Ministry of Justice issued a consultation on introducing coronial investigations of stillbirth cases in England and Wales; that closed on 18 June 2019.

4 MHCLG, ‘Crematoria provision and facilities: Government response to the review’, available at <https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/793588/Crematoria_Review_-_government_response.pdf>, accessed 13 May 2019.

6 ‘Crematoria provision and facilities,’ para 88.

10 HC Deb 2 May 2019, vol 659, col 210WH.

12 HM Passport Office and General Register Office, Clergy Newsletter, 8 February 2019, available at <http://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Clergy-Newsletter-Edition-8.-Feb2019.pdf>, accessed 13 May 2019.

14 Available at <https://christianpersecutionreview.org.uk/interim-report/>, accessed 13 May 2019.

15 Available at <https://christianpersecutionreview.org.uk/report/>, accessed 27 July 2019.

16 See, for example, the remarks of Lord Agnew of Oulton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education, on 10 September 2018 in reply to an oral question by Baroness Walmsley: HL Deb 10 September 2018, vol 792, col 2093.