Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to grant legal recognition for humanist marriages in England and Wales; and what assessment he has made of the potential barriers to granting such legal recognition.

The Law Commission review that the Government announced this June is a fundamental review of the law on how and where people can legally marry in England and Wales. As part of that review, the Government invited the Law Commission to make recommendations about how marriage by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised or new scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent. The Government will consider the Law Commission’s recommendations.

Assessment of the potential merits of provision for non-religious belief marriages can be found in the consultation paper and response published by a previous Government in 2014 and available at justice.gov.uk. The Government has subsequently taken the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group’s report into consideration.

The law in England and Wales presents different issues for Government consideration from the law of many other jurisdictions, including Northern Ireland, in being based on where a marriage can take place rather than on who can conduct it.