Hansard

First, I thank the Equalities and Human Rights Committee for its scrutiny of the bill and its helpful stage 1 report. I also thank Ruth Maguire for her very informative insights into some of the evidence that the committee heard. I welcome the debate, as it is important that Parliament continues to meet to deal with business that is unrelated to Covid-19 where it is safe and possible to do so. I record my thanks to Parliament staff for their extraordinary commitment to their job and for facilitating parliamentary business in these difficult times.

Scottish Greens support the bill, and we will vote for it at decision time. Indeed, even before civil partnerships existed, Scottish Green Party policy supported the principle that both marriage and civil partnerships should be available to all, with no discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.

When civil partnerships were first proposed in the UK, Patrick Harvie in 2003 proposed a member’s bill that would have created civil registered partnerships on a non-discriminatory basis, with such partnerships being open to mixed-sex couples from the outset. At the time, it was disappointing that other parties decided to use a legislative consent motion, which was then known as a Sewel motion, to have the UK legislate in the devolved area of family law. The UK subsequently created civil partnerships for England and Wales, which was a step forward, but it did so on a discriminatory basis. If we had passed the Greens’ proposed bill instead, we would have been fully compliant with human rights legislation right from the start.

Nonetheless, we are where we are, and I am glad that we are here now. The bill extends eligibility to enter into a civil partnership to different-sex couples by amending the 2004 act to remove the reference to same-sex couples, and it also recognises mixed-sex civil partnerships that have been registered outside Scotland.

Different-sex couples can already obtain civil partnerships in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and—as many members have noted—the Supreme Court, in the 2018 Steinfeld and Keidan case, decided that preventing opposite-sex couples from entering into civil partnerships was discriminatory and incompatible with the European convention on human rights. There is therefore a straightforward principle at stake. Parliament has acknowledged that it was wrong that the state created and administered marriage on a discriminatory basis, and surely it is therefore equally wrong that civil partnerships are similarly discriminatory.

The arguments for and against the bill are relatively modest and straightforward, and are set out in the committee’s stage 1 report. The reasons that the Scottish Government did not introduce mixed-sex civil partnerships following the 2015 consultation included, among other factors, low demand, limited recognition of such partnerships in the rest of the UK and overseas, the idea that society’s understanding of civil partnerships might be limited, the fact that Scots law already provided some rights for cohabitants, the fact that it was already possible to have a civil marriage ceremony, and the increased complexity that might arise.

However, everything changed following the Supreme Court ruling in 2018, and the Scottish Government, in its consultation that year, posed the choice of whether to close civil partnerships to new relationships or extend them to opposite-sex couples. Either approach would, in theory, as Graham Simpson said, overcome the human rights violation that the Supreme Court identified. In the end, ministers took the view that eligibility for civil partnerships should be extended. We welcome that approach, as it provides flexibility and choice, which are principles that should underpin how people choose to live their lives.

We also welcome the committee’s recommendation that those couples who are married should be able to convert their legal relationship to a civil partnership. That is a very important issue given the underlying principles of freedom and choice as to how couples wish to relate to each other in law, which are so important. We also believe that any kind of hierarchy in relationships is false, unhelpful and can be stigmatising. People should be able to choose the form of relationship recognition that best suits them, whether that be cohabitation, marriage or civil partnership—either fully civil or with some sort of religious element. If people choose what is best for them, it is not for anyone else to portray that as a lesser relationship. The bill takes some important final steps towards equal recognition and respect.

Finally, choice and freedoms in relationships should also cover cohabitation. I welcome the committee’s recommendations in that regard. I await the Scottish Law Commission’s review of that area of law with interest.