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Chamber and committees

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill as amended at Stage 2

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Introduction

  1. At its meeting on 23 June 2020, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the delegated powers in the Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill ("the Bill") as amended at Stage 2.

  1. The Committee submits this report to the Parliament under Rule 9.7.9 of the Standing Orders.

  1. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee published its Stage 1 Report on the Bill on 17 January 2020. The Committee reported that it was content with all of the delegated powers in the Bill.

  1. The Bill completed Stage 2 on 11 June 2020. The Scottish Government has since lodged a Supplementary Delegated Powers Memorandum covering the powers in the Bill as amended at Stage 2.

Overview of the Bill

  1. This Government Bill was introduced by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, on 30 September 2019. The lead committee is the Equalities and Human Rights Committee.

  1. The Bill is the Scottish Government’s response to the UK Supreme Court’s judgement in R (on the application of Steinfeld and Keidan) v Secretary of State for International Development that sections 1 and 3 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 were incompatible with the ECHR to the extent that they precluded mixed sex couples from entering into civil partnerships.

  1. The Bill makes civil partnership available to mixed sex couples. It includes provisions on eligibility, registration, dissolution, family law matters, recognition of similar relationships from other jurisdictions, gender recognition, and forced civil partnership.

Delegated Powers

  1. The Committee considered each of the new delegated powers in the Bill. The Committee determined that it did not need to draw the attention of the Parliament to the delegated powers in the following provisions:

    • Section 3A(1) – changing marriages to civil partnerships

    • Section 3B(1) – recognition of marriages converted to civil partnerships outwith Scotland

    • Schedule 2, paragraph 6(5) - supplementary provisions on recognition of overseas dissolutions

  1. The Committee therefore reports that it is content with the new delegated powers provisions in the Bill as amended at Stage 2.