Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on an important bill that will allow Scotland to continue to promote equality, freedom of choice and fairness. The Equalities and Human Rights Committee did important work in its early consideration of the bill. Although I have stepped back from the committee, I will make sure that Maurice Golden and Alison Harris keep me up to date on the bill’s progress as they ably represent the Scottish Conservatives’ voice on the committee.

The bill’s fundamental principles are sound and there is cross-party support for the bill. However, we must still carefully consider it, and I ask the Scottish Government to be agile in its approach to some of the difficulties raised by the bill as we move forward to stage 2. It is important that we progress the bill through Parliament so that Scotland does not lag behind the rest of the UK on civil partnership. England, Wales and Northern Ireland have already passed the necessary legislation to make civil partnerships legal for different-sex couples, and I am glad that Scotland will join those countries soon in that regard.

As we have heard, the 2018 Supreme Court ruling outlined that the unequal access to civil partnerships for different-sex couples was in breach of the European convention on human rights and that we must therefore adapt our law to take account of that. In 2014, the landmark legislation that legalised same-sex marriage saw the LGBT community take a major step forward in its on-going fight for equality. That equity for relationships regardless of sexual orientation must now be offered to different-sex couples who want to access civil partnership.

The 2018 ruling represented a wider movement in public attitudes that was the catalyst for the introduction of the bill. The British social attitudes survey in 2019 showed that 65 per cent of the public supported the introduction of different sex civil partnerships, while only 7 per cent actively opposed it.

As the Equalities and Human Right Committee scrutinised the bill, it found, time and again, that the central purpose of the bill is to allow couples the right to legitimise their relationship through the route that best represents their cultural values and outlook on the world. I am glad that, today, we are starting to take the first steps to allow that to become a reality for mixed-sex couples across the country.

The bill is about extending choice. The Equality Network gave evidence that referred to that when it talked about the levelling up that will happen as a result of the bill. Although marriage and civil partnerships represent a similar legal position, they can mean very different things to individual couples. Both come with their own set of symbolic values and their own importance, and I am therefore glad that the bill represents an extension of choice. The alternative to aligning with the European convention on human rights would have represented a limitation to that personal freedom by removing the option of accessing civil partnerships altogether.

The bill, on the whole, is straightforward and uncontentious. There are, however, some important considerations to be made as we approach stage 2. The committee report outlines various areas where further consideration at stage 2 will be needed. For example, the drafting of section 3 will need to be examined to ensure that we respect the decisions of couples who have specifically chosen to enter civil partnerships and, because of that, might be unhappy with their status being likened to a marriage, even if that is only on an interim basis in Scotland. If we do not get that right, we will be sidelining the conscious freedom of couples to be legally recognised in the way that they choose.

Another interesting area of discussion that the committee considered surrounded the matter of converting marriages to civil partnerships. The purpose of converting civil partnerships to marriages was clear when they served a community of LGBT couples who wished to formally transform their civil partnerships to marriages as a result of same-sex marriage becoming law. It allowed them to access the legal recognition that they had always been barred from, and it symbolised a battle won in a wider fight for equality.

Evidence to the committee was overwhelmingly in favour of the bill allowing marriages to be converted to civil partnerships in a bid to recognise cultural preference, as well as to make sure that Scotland did not perpetuate forms of discrimination. I was therefore encouraged when I heard the cabinet secretary say today that he will work with the committee on that point.

I am pleased to see the inclusion of forced civil partnership as a criminal offence. For the first time, that will put same-sex and different-sex civil partnerships on the same level as married couples in relation to protection. That protection acknowledges the legal validity of civil partnerships by outlining that they should never be taken advantage of or used for harm.

The bill underpins the attributes of modern Scottish and British culture that we would do well to protect: fairness, equality and freedom of choice. It will be important that those continue to be upheld as the committee enters considerations at stage 2.

In a time when most of us are missing our loved ones and those who mean most to us and are seeing the fragility of life, I am happy that I can support a bill that allows couples to recognise their love in a way that they have decided represents their values best.