Biggest marriage shake-up in 200 years

Civil partnership rights for heterosexual couples and end to signing wedding register in series of reforms

HETEROSEXUAL couples will be given the right to enter civil partnerships after the Government ushered in the biggest shake up of marriage laws since the 1800s.

In a move that was derided as introducing “marriage-lite”, the Home Office said it would review the “operation” of civil partnerships – which are currently only available to homosexual couples – “so the difference in treatment in the current system is resolved”.

The reform is the most controversial of a series of changes that will mean couples are no longer given a marriage certificate on the day of their wedding and will not sign an official register on the day. A single electronic register will replace the current system of registers being held in churches.

A mother’s name and occupations will also be put on their child’s marriage certificates alongside the father’s for the first time. Home Office sources said they were examining whether couples could add their mothers’ details to marriage certificates retrospectively.

The changes to marriage registration are the first since 1837. Marriage registers have been maintained in churches since the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.

Including mothers’ details on marriage certificates was broadly welcomed but pro-marriage campaigners warned that the other reforms were “mean-spirited” and risked “downgrading marriage”.

The reforms emerged after the Government unexpectedly announced plans to back a back-bench private members’ Bill in the House of Commons yesterday to reform the law around births, marriages and deaths.

Civil partnerships in England and Wales were introduced in 2004 as an initial step on the road to legalising same-sex marriage.

Demand then fell after same-sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales in March 2014, and in Scotland in December 2014.

But some heterosexual couples who do not want a traditional marriage have argued that there is now inequality in the law as they do not have the choice of a civil partnership. Ministers are planning to publish a consultation on allowing men and women to enter into civil partnerships to determine the effect of the changes on other areas of legislation such as divorce law.

Other changes include the marriage register itself being replaced by a new single-page “marriage schedule”.

After the marriage, the couple will be required to take the completed schedule to their local register office where their details will be entered on a database. The couple will only be able to receive a marriage certificate some days later after they have lodged an official application form.

Tim Loughton, who is behind the back-bench motion that will introduce the reforms, told MPS: “We need to recognise that our society is changing and we need to adapt in order to promote family stability – in whatever form – to provide a continuum that gives children the best and most stable start in life.”

Colin Hart, the chairman of the Coalition for Marriage campaign group, said extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples “will profoundly undermine marriage”. He added: “It will be seen as a low-commitment form of the institution – a sort of marriage-lite”.