Move to make divorce easier and reduce family conflict

COUPLES are to be allowed no-fault divorces in the first major change to UK marriage laws for 50 years.

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, wants to abolish the current system of fault-based divorce and will announce a consultation on the matter as the first stage in the process of passing reforming legislation.

Under a simplified system, spouses would lose the ability to block a divorce because there would be no need for their husband or wife to prove adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion as in the current contested system.

The move comes just weeks after the Supreme Court ordered a wife to stay in her “loveless” marriage after her husband of 40 years denied that he had behaved unreasonably.

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) will propose a minimum time frame of six months for a divorce to become finalised, according to Buzzfeed News, and will keep “irretrievable breakdown” as the sole legal reason for divorce.

The proposed reforms could also apply to civil partnerships.

Sources said one of the reasons for changing the law was to reduce the level of family conflict created by the existing confrontational system.

In March, Sir James Munby, the country’s most senior family judge, called for radical reform of UK divorce laws, which he said lacked “intellectual honesty”.

In July, the Supreme Court refused Tini Owens permission to divorce her husband Hugh because she had failed to prove that her marriage had broken down.

Her 80-year-old husband said she had become “bored” or had had an affair. Mrs Owens, 68, had described her marriage as “loveless and desperately unhappy”.

The judges said they had “reluctantly” ruled against her and that changing the law was “a question for Parliament”.

The MOJ responded by saying it would consider changing the law because the current system “creates unnecessary antagonism”.

Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, said it was time for the Government to “get on with changing our divorce laws so that they are fit for the 21st century”.

The MOJ declined to comment on the reports last night.