Hansard

This has been an entirely consensual debate. Graham Simpson injected some humour of sorts, as well as some interesting legal commentary. We were joined virtually by Pauline McNeill and Annie Wells, who made interesting speeches, as well as by Stewart Stevenson, who looked as though he was warming up for an operatic show, perhaps by doing some press-ups—probably one armed—and gave a suitably eloquent speech.

Fulton MacGregor and Angela Constance highlighted the extensive evidence that the committee has taken, and suggested that we must address and progress the bill, which I agree with.

Many thanks have been offered to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee and its clerks: I associate myself with those comments.

Overriding themes in the debate have been equality and fairness. Points on those were adeptly made by Alex Cole-Hamilton, who also highlighted that there are 3 million mixed-sex couples who cohabit and who have, to date, chosen not to marry. Andy Wightman clarified that that is a UK-wide figure, but the Scottish figure is high, nonetheless.

Kenneth Gibson explained why marriage is not for some people. He said that although there are many reasons that explain that, they are

“frankly none of our business”.

The creation of equality, through ensuring that people across Scotland have the same choices in their relationships, and fairness, through allowing the law to recognise those choices, are things that we should all support.

When civil partnerships were introduced back in 2004, it was in order to create a more equal footing for same-sex couples. However, in doing so, an inequality was created for different-sex couples, who could not enter into such partnerships. I appreciate that that exclusion was not malign in intent, but the end result was still unfair to different-sex couples who would have chosen a civil partnership, had that choice been open to them.

Scotland is now catching up with the rest of the UK, where civil partnerships for different-sex couples are already recognised. The bill that is before us is an opportunity to correct that and to bring Scotland up to date—a point that Alexander Stewart made well.

Beyond that, the bill should be an opportunity to ensure that we do not repeat the mistake of inadvertently allowing well-intentioned legislation to create more unfairness. Therefore, it is important that the proposed expansion of civil partnerships be indistinguishable from the existing provision for same-sex couples. I therefore welcome the willingness to extend the provision of conversion of partnerships to marriages—a point that was mentioned by Ruth Maguire and Annie Wells, among others—and the recognition of non-Scottish different-sex civil partnerships by allowing registration a second time, when necessary.

It is also welcome that there will now be prohibition of forced partnerships for both same-sex and different-sex couples.

However, although we can all welcome the improvement in the quality of choice, we must also recognise that legislation that intrudes upon the personal and private lives of individuals will have a number of implications. Those must be fully explored as the bill makes its way through Parliament, and I have full confidence in the Equalities and Human Rights Committee and the Parliament to do that.

I will highlight some key themes for Parliament to discuss during the next stages of the bill. We must examine better what we mean when we talk about “equality” and “fairness”. As I said, they have been watchwords throughout stage 1, which will no doubt continue to be the case.

However, the bill seeks primarily to address equality and fairness where they apply to a particular set of people—namely, different-sex couples who, for whatever reason, wish to enter not into a marriage but into a civil partnership. It is entirely right that we address such concerns and create a more equal system for such couples. The cabinet secretary summed up that point when she gave evidence to our committee. She said:

“The Government is obliged to consider what can be done to ensure that those people can be in a legally recognised relationship and have the benefits that flow from that while having an arrangement that fits their personal beliefs and how they want to live their lives.”—[Official Report, Equalities and Human Rights Committee, 5 March 2020; c3]

That begs a question: why should the same recognition and benefits not be equally applied? In many jurisdictions, both current and historic, Scots law does not provide for equality of marriage and civil relationships. That would not change under the bill.

The question is whether the bill will add another form of legal relationship to the ever-intensifying complexity of family legal relationships that are open to individuals. We should consider further where we draw the line in terms of respecting the wishes of minority groups that are looking to have their preferred options enshrined in law. Clearly, we cannot satisfy every view, so Parliament must discuss where to draw the line—perhaps not for this bill, although it might be something to consider in the fullness of time.

For those reasons and others, I believe that Parliament must ensure that wider views are represented in the bill. Ensuring that we hear those views is the only way that we can really claim to have delivered as equal and as fair a bill as possible.

I conclude by quoting Sarah Boyack, who said earlier that

“we want to be an inclusive, forward-looking country that upholds people’s rights.”

The bill, broadly, does that within the legal parameters that have been set, therefore the Scottish Conservatives will support its general principles at decision time.