Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government's 20 December 2021 announcement of proposals to use interim reform to legislate for outdoor civil and religious marriages, for what reason the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice stated that legislating for humanist marriages would pre-empt the Law Commission’s review of marriage law, Official Report, 27 January 2022, col 439 WH.

By looking at the law comprehensively, the Law Commission will be able to ensure that, insofar as possible, groups and couples are all subject to the same rules and the same level of regulation. The Law Commission recommendations are expected to eliminate the current situation where a couple with one set of beliefs is legally permitted to marry in one type of location (for example, in a private garden), but a couple with another set of beliefs is not. That reform is not possible by only authorising humanist weddings.

The Government will carefully consider the Law Commission’s recommendations when the final report is published, and it is right for us to wait for the outcome of the Law Commission’s report due in July.