Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc) Bill: Committee Stage Report

The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill (the Bill) is a Private Member’s Bill introduced by Tim Loughton (Conservative), who came fifth in the ballot for Commons Private Members’ Bills for the 2017-19 Parliamentary session. The Bill, as amended in Public Bill Committee, has Government and Opposition support.

The Bill would deal with the following matters:

• marriage registration;
• report on civil partnership;
• report on registration of pregnancy loss; and
• coroners’ investigations into stillbirths.

Most of Bill would extend to England and Wales. Clauses 5 (Supplementary provision about regulations) and 6 (Extent, commencement and short title) would extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Tim Loughton has said that although consequential amendments might be made to UK-wide legislation, the substantive changes to the law would relate to England and Wales only.

This briefing paper provides information about Second Reading and Public Bill Committee stage in the House of Commons. Another Commons Library briefing paper provides background information about the issues involved:

Commons Library analysis: Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill (Number 08217, 24 October 2018).

In addition, four separate papers are available for those who are interested only in specific aspects:

• Mothers’ details on marriage certificates (Number 07516);
• The future of civil partnership (Number 07586);
• Registration of stillbirth (Number 5595); and
• The investigation of stillbirth (Number 01867).

In Public Bill Committee a number of amendments were agreed including:

• replacing Clauses 1 (Marriage registration) and 2 (Report on civil partnership) – the clauses in the Bill as introduced had been referred to as “marker clauses”;
• introducing a new supplementary provision about regulations;
• amending the long title.

Report stage in the Commons is scheduled for 26 October 2018.

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