Hansard

As a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, I place on record my thanks to the clerks, witnesses and all those who gave up their time to get us to this place.

Although I agree with the general premise of the argument that has been made here in recent weeks about the need for us, in these times, to prioritise the Covid-19 response, I think that there are caveats. Of course, we cannot simply carry on as normal while people’s lives have been turned upside down, but, at the same time, we need to behave respectfully towards legislation that has already started its progress through Parliament, the witnesses who have given their time and people who are relying on the legislation being passed. I think that the Government has found the right balance in that regard.

Of course, as has been argued today, parts of the Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill are very relevant to the current situation and to some of the difficulties that people are having. Like some of my colleagues, I have had queries from constituents wondering what will happen to the wedding or ceremony that they had planned for the coming months. They are not all asking for the ability to hold traditional large parties; rather, they want the opportunity to have their ceremony with a minimum number of people, in a safe environment. I welcome the work of the Scottish Government in that area and the cabinet secretary’s response on the subject last week in the chamber.

The bill will extend civil partnerships to mixed-sex couples as opposed to restricting them to same-sex couples, as the legislation currently does. That is right and is in line with the European convention on human rights. Couples may not want to enter a marriage, for a range of reasons—symbolic, cultural or emotional. At the end of the day, marriage is a deeply personal life choice. I understand that some regard marriage as carrying patriarchal baggage and that civil partnerships, although they confer the same legal benefits as marriage, are viewed differently. We heard that clearly when we were taking evidence in the committee. With the passing of same-sex marriage legislation, people in same-sex relationships rightly have a choice of marriage or civil partnership, and it has been ruled that those same options should be available to mixed-sex couples, in order to comply with the European convention on human rights.

As has already been said—Graham Simpson noted that we are probably going over the same lines—the committee took an array of evidence to enhance our scrutiny. Crucially, the bill has widespread support. Stonewall Scotland, for example, feels that the bill would support LGBT people on the whole by opening options up to bi and trans people. In addition, Children in Scotland feels that the legislation would have only positive implications for children whose parents choose to enter mixed-sex civil partnerships and for children born to parents in mixed-sex civil partnerships. As others have said, no real evidence was given against the bill, which shows that the legislation is widely supported.

If the bill passes, couples who are currently cohabiting but do not wish to enter into a marriage will have a new option. On the surface, it might appear that there are few legal differences between a marriage and a civil partnership, but there are major differences between people cohabiting and people being in a marriage or civil partnership. If the bill passes, mixed-sex couples will be able to enjoy the legal protection that is afforded to civil partnerships, which cohabiting couples do not have under the bill, particularly with regard to tax planning and instances of one of the partners predeceasing the other.

Practically, the legislation opens up rights when transferring property or making gifts, and it ensures that capital gains tax will not apply to assets that someone has given or sold to their partner. In addition, currently, if a cohabiting partner dies before their partner without having made a valid will, the surviving partner will not automatically inherit from their estate. However, upon entering into a civil partnership, a partner has a legal right to the estate of their partner, even if they died without leaving a will—the surviving partner would be entitled to claim one third of their partner’s moveable estate if they had children at the time of their death, or half if there were no children. Likewise, on inheritance tax, the situation for a civil partner is the same as it is for someone who is married: they are able to transfer the entirety of their assets on death to their surviving civil partner without incurring any tax. Those might be some of the reasons why little evidence was given against the bill, which seems to bring in commonsense changes.

As others have said, Scotland is the only country in the world where same-sex couples can choose between a marriage or a civil partnership while different-sex couples have only the option of marriage—of course, until recently, that was the case in England and Wales, too. The bill will see us join other nations in making civil partnership an option for everyone.

I will conclude with a quote from the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s written evidence on the bill. It said:

“the approach of upholding human rights and providing equality of opportunity for all couples who wish to enter into a legally recognised relationship is to be welcomed as progress towards greater equality in Scottish society.”