Hansard

I am pleased to support Alex Cole-Hamilton’s amendments 1 and 2. They are quite simple, but, as the committee is well aware, they address a very serious point. As Alex Cole-Hamilton said, Martin Loat from Equal Civil Partnerships gave evidence to the committee on the bill and expressed serious concerns about recognition of mixed-sex civil partnerships as marriage. In its stage 1 report, the committee concluded that “there is no immediate alternative to the current approach.” However, you encouraged me and the Government to work with members to explore whether the language could be changed. As the committee may be aware, the demands of Covid-19 work ultimately prevented me from meeting Alex Cole-Hamilton to discuss the issue, but it certainly has not stopped the work that we have been taking forward. I welcome the amendments from him and I am pleased to support them. In line with the conclusions in the stage 1 report, the amendments strike the right balance between addressing the concerns that have been raised and leaving the substance of the interim scheme of recognition intact. As the committee knows, recognition of marriage is about access to the full body of law that establishes rights, responsibilities and benefits for marriage. There is no equivalent body of law in place yet for mixed-sex civil partnership, so there would be a risk of loss or disadvantage if couples were to be recognised as having a civil partnership before everything that is needed is in place. However, I absolutely recognise that couples will want to call themselves civil partners in day-to-day conversation, and the amendments reflect that. I absolutely recognise that Alex Cole-Hamilton and other committee members have said that we need to implement the bill as quickly as possible. Of course, we still need to do a lot of work to do that, and that will be impacted by the work that we need to do to tackle Covid-19. I assure the committee that it remains the Scottish Government’s priority to move these issues forward and ensure that the interim period is as short as possible. I take this opportunity to reiterate my commitment to introducing the necessary secondary legislation as soon as possible. I will work closely with the United Kingdom Government on an order under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998 on changes to reserved and UK legislation, and with National Records of Scotland on changes to information technology, public-facing guidance and training for registrars. I support amendments 1 and 2. Amendment 1 agreed to. Amendment 2 moved—Alex Cole-Hamilton—and agreed to. Section 3, as amended, agreed to. After section 3