Hansard

The cabinet secretary and the convener of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee have set out why the bill is before us. For thoroughness, I will go over some of that ground—but not too much of it.

I suspect that many speeches in this debate will sound pretty much the same. That is fine; the bill is pretty uncontroversial. However, that does not mean that there are no points to debate or to consider at stage 2—it would be odd if there were no such points. Therefore, although we support the general principles of the bill, I will make constructive suggestions about areas that might be considered. Before I do, I congratulate committee members and clerks on, and thank them for, their work on the bill.

I have a wide brief, which includes equalities, local government, communities and social security. I cannot be everywhere, so I am not a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee. However, the ever-enthusiastic Maurice Golden and Alison Harris make up for my absence. We will hear from Mr Golden later in the debate; we will also hear from Alexander Stewart and a virtual Annie Wells, live from Glasgow.

In some ways, my not being a member of the lead committee gave me the advantage of being able to look at the bill with fresh eyes. When I did that, my first question was, “Is this law necessary?” We have heard that different-sex couples in Scotland who want their relationship to be legally recognised have only the option of marriage, whereas same-sex couples have the choice of getting married or forming a civil partnership. We might ask why a couple would want a civil partnership when they could get married. What is the point? I will come on to that.

Civil partnerships for different-sex couples were recently introduced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, following a ruling by the Supreme Court that the situation was discriminatory and incompatible with the European convention on human rights. However, I have heard it argued that the court did not take evidence on that point, because the point was accepted, so it did not rule on the matter. In any case, the ruling applied only in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; it did not apply in Scotland.

Therefore, I do not think that, legally, we have to do something in Scotland. For me, the question is a political one, not a legal one. Do we think that inequality should be eliminated, either by abolishing civil partnerships or by extending them to different-sex couples?

The former would be a perfectly legitimate policy position to take. It could easily be argued that there is no longer the need for civil partnerships because same-sex couples can now get married. However, the Scottish Conservatives prefer the latter option. We back the aim of extending civil partnerships to different-sex couples to uphold human rights and provide equality of opportunity. Doing so will also provide parity with the rest of the UK. As the committee’s report says,

“Scotland (and until recently England and Wales), is the only country in the world where same sex couples can choose between marriage or civil partnership, while different sex couples only have the option of marriage.”

That makes us something of an outrider. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not necessary in this case.

Other than allowing same-sex couples to form civil partnerships, the bill seeks to make consequential changes to Scottish family law; allow for the recognition of certain overseas relationships between different-sex couples; make consequential amendments to legislation concerning gender recognition; and create an offence of forcing someone into a civil partnership.

The bill does not allow a marriage to be converted into a civil partnership, although it makes provision for couples in a different-sex civil partnership to convert that into a marriage if they wish. Perhaps, as has been mentioned, that area could be explored at stage 2.

I was encouraged by the committee’s view that

“if provisions to allow conversion from marriage to civil partnership are introduced in England and Wales, then Scotland could fall behind on matters of equality. Whilst there are undoubtedly legal challenges in this area, we consider these could be overcome with careful legal drafting.”

I was also encouraged by the cabinet secretary’s earlier comments in that regard.

The bill does not allow for adultery to be used as a ground for ending a civil partnership, unlike in a marriage. If one was being mischievous about it, one could dub the bill a love cheat’s charter, or rename it the open marriage (Scotland) bill. Frankly, most people—except those of a liberal mind—would see cheating to be a perfectly proper ground for ending any relationship.