Clause 39 - Polygamous marriages
Tax Credits Bill
4:30 pm
Ms Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
No, I agree. One husband is quite enough.
A polygamous marriage is recognised as valid by the courts if it was contracted in a country that permits
polygamy and the parties to the marriage were subject to the law of that country at the time when they were married. This is a principle of international law and was written into the UK statute book in 1995—thank goodness—by the Private International Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. Polygamy is recognised for the purposes of income support, jobseeker's allowance, working families tax credit and disabled person's tax credit and follows the precedent that has been set.
I was informed that, if the provision was not included in the Bill, the UK would risk being in breach of the European convention on human rights, in which case, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor would have been unable to sign the compatibility statement.
I have probably said enough to assure the Committee that this is a necessary provision. It is extremely rare and is a sensitive issue. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will agree to allow us to move on, although I am sure that he could ask the Library to do some interesting research for him on this aspect of UK law.