Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Lord Pannick Excerpts

Wednesday 10th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cumberlege]

My Lords, I support the amendment of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leicester. We know that parents go to great lengths to get their children into faith schools, which are hugely popular. Some 30% of schools are faith schools. Parents value the ethos, discipline and character of the schools, which teach the importance of marriage for family life and for bringing up children. Of course, that is nothing new. It is built into our existing law. As the right reverend Prelate said, Section 403(1A) of the Education Act 1996 requires the Secretary of State to issue guidance to ensure that pupils,

“learn the nature of marriage and its importance for family life and the bringing up of children”.

We know that in future the word “marriage” in Section 403 will mean both opposite-sex and same-sex marriage, so when the Bill is enacted it will change the meaning of “marriage”.

As I understand it, the amendment is designed to tackle a problem that will arise by reason of the wording in Section 403(1A) that requires more than ensuring that children learn about the law of the land. The section puts an obligation on the Secretary of State to ensure that children, I repeat,

“learn the nature of marriage and its importance for family life and the bringing up of children”.

Those words are of concern because they entail more than the teaching of fact or law. They require schools to teach that marriage is valuable and beneficial for family life and the bringing up of children. As the right reverend Prelate said, it could be in conflict with the Secretary of State’s guidance.

In this amendment, we want to ensure that schools with a religious character are able to continue ensuring that pupils learn about the importance of marriage for family life, and that they are not prevented from doing so by the redefinition of marriage in Section 403 caused by the Bill. It is a modest amendment that will alleviate the concerns of many schools about the conflict that could arise, which was outlined by the right reverend Prelate.

I am sure that noble Lords will say that it is simply not needed. That argument has been used against a lot of the amendments that have been put forward. However, I was reminded of Voltaire, who said:

“Define your terms, you will permit me again to say, or we shall never understand one another”.

It is important that we understand each other, especially as legislators, and are clear about what we consider to be the law of the land.

The Government last Monday saw no harm in redefining some of their terms. Previously, we were told that it was not necessary to clarify parts of the Bill but, in Committee, the Government, generously perhaps, put forward amendments to further clarify the wording around the Public Order Act and the definition of “compel”—amendments which we consider have really improved the Bill. Our aim is not to allow schools with a religious character to avoid teaching the law of the land; as the Minister rightly pointed out,

“such schools do already teach about topics that may be considered sensitive, such as divorce, and they do so without issue”.—[Official Report, 24/6/13; col. 567.]

But we think that all schools, including schools with a religious character, should teach the law, and this amendment has been very carefully drafted to ensure that schools will not be enabled to ignore any guidance requiring them to do so. It is not designed to prevent schools educating them about the law. On the contrary, we want schools to teach the law, to ensure that it is taught with clarity, is even-handed and, as they understand it, within the character and ethos of faith schools, without conflicting with the Secretary of State’s guidance.

[Lord Pannick]

My Lords, I understand the concerns that have moved the right reverend Prelate and the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, but I think that the amendment is inappropriate, for these reasons. Section 403, which the amendment addresses, is concerned with sex education. There are many contexts in which sex education raises religious issues, including homosexuality, contraception, and no doubt many more. I cannot understand why there is a need for a specific statutory provision in Section 403 to address the impact of same-sex marriage on sex education when there is no need for a statutory provision to address other issues that may have a religious dimension.

The right reverend Prelate referred to Section 403(1A), which, as the noble Baroness pointed out, says that the guidance to be issued by the Secretary of State must put sex education in the context of marriage and family life. But there is a very good reason why the guidance requires sex education to be put in the context of family life and marriage. That is because sex education should not be taught simply on the basis of physicality; it should be presented, as I am sure that all noble Lords would agree, in the context of responsibility and the development of relationships. Surely, if and when sex education addresses homosexuality, it should equally be taught in that same context of responsibility and other relationships and, as a result of this Bill, that will include same-sex marriage. For this amendment to be adopted would, I am afraid, run counter to everything else that we are seeking to achieve in this Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Singh of Wimbledon]

I rise briefly to say that, in the next amendment, I will produce some evidence-based research that very much supports the concerns of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel.

[Lord Pannick]

I agree entirely with everything that has been said by the noble Lord, Lord Alli. But the concern of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, is about the implications of the measures in this Bill. I can see no reason whatever for thinking that it could be any less favourable to the interests of a child to be brought up by parents in a same-sex marriage than to those of a child being brought up by parents in a civil partnership. I would have thought that the stability and status of a marriage would be as beneficial to the child as it will be to the partners of same-sex marriage.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Carlile of Berriew]

My Lords, listening to the little exchange that has taken place in the past few minutes between two distinguished noble friends who are members of the Conservative Party led me to think about whether an alliance between UKIP and the Tory party—which, of course, has been mooted—might be regarded as a same-sex marriage.

Leaving aside that little bit of private grief in the Conservative Party, I agree with every word that has been uttered by my noble friend Lord Fowler and will not repeat it because I could not say it as well as he. Like many people in this country, I have great admiration for the noble Lord, Lord Singh. We hear him on the public radio from time to time, and he utters very wise words—mostly. However, I say to the noble Lord that, regrettably, on this occasion he has let us, and himself, down. I invite him to reflect upon whether the proposed amendment is a proper use of the debating procedure of your Lordships’ House; what he said sounded to me awfully like a Second Reading speech.

In order to ascertain whether that would be a justified comment, I spent some little time looking at the noble Lord’s biography and bibliography to see what other issues that he has suggested would be suitable for a referendum because they have an ethical or moral component. There are none: this is special pleading. I urge your Lordships to reject the amendment on that simple basis.

[Lord Pannick]

My Lords, perhaps I may remind noble Lords that the Constitution Committee, of which I was then a member, recently produced a report on referendums. We said that there are significant drawbacks to the use of referendums, essentially for the reasons given by the noble Lord, Lord Fowler. Our advice to the House was that they should be confined to fundamental constitutional issues. This is not a fundamental constitutional issue. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, that helping out the Prime Minister, if he needs help to get off any hook, is not a fundamental constitutional issue.

[Lord Alli]

My Lords, I, too, do not want to help the Prime Minister, but let me say that I am most grateful for the Prime Minister’s help. He has shown huge personal courage in bringing forward this Bill, for which many of us would want to pay tribute to him.

Perhaps I may say this to the noble Lord, Lord Singh: a December 2012 MORI poll showed that 73% of people agree that gay people should be allowed to marry. On 5 February, at Second Reading in the House of Commons, it was 400 to 175 on a free vote. On 21 May, at Third Reading in the House of Commons, it was 366 to 161 on a free vote. On 4 June, at Second Reading in the House of Lords, it was 390 to 148 on a free vote. On 8 July, the first day of the Report stage in the House of Lords, the votes were 344 to 119 on Amendment 1, followed by votes of 278 to 103, 163 to 32 and 84 to 15. The noble Lord seeks to suggest that this is undemocratic and unconstitutional, but in doing so I fear that he is treading on very dangerous ground. He risks insulting the integrity of both Houses of this Parliament.