Clause 170 - Grounds on which civil partnership is voidable
Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Christopher Chope (Shadow Minister, Environment and Transport; Christchurch, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 243, in clause 170, page 83, line 33, at end insert—
'(ca) at the time of its formation, the respondent was suffering from a communicable sexual disease;'.
The amendment mirrors amendment No. 227 to clause 50, which we could not debate in the previous sitting because of the guillotine. My hon. Friend the Member for Lagan Valley (Mr. Donaldson) and I have refrained from voting against many clauses in this part of the Bill because we want to get on to debate some of the amendments.
This is one of the amendments that I tabled so that we would have the opportunity to debate the subject and tease out the Government's thinking on it. I am sure that I will be attacked for saying that the amendment is a recognition that we are talking about same-sex marriage, when I am against same-sex marriage. However, I recognise that that is what the Bill is about and if we are going to have nullification of same-sex marriage, we might as well have the same grounds for voidability as we have for what I would call proper marriage.
The amendment would add a new ground and would make a civil partnership voidable if at the time of its formation the respondent was suffering from a communicable sexual disease. That is nothing new under the law in the sense that that is already the law as it applies to marriage under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. For those who do not have the terms in front of them, section 12 of that Act provides that a marriage celebrated after 31 July should be voidable ''on the following grounds'' only. Many grounds are set out and ground (e) is that at the time of the marriage the respondent was suffering from venereal disease in a communicable form.
The amendment is intended to put the provision in the Bill on a par with what happens under the law of marriage as it stands under the 1973 Act. Of course, the provision would be subject to the following clause, as it is under the 1973 Act. If the other party to the partnership—or, in terms of the 1973 Act, to the marriage—consents to or connives at this, that remove the grounds for nullity. However, in the absence of the other partner's knowledge, that would remain a ground on which a civil partnership would be voidable. It must be in the public interest to prevent a party to a civil partnership from finding out that the other party was carrying a communicable sexual disease at the time that the partnership was formed, without his or her knowledge. The provision is a necessary protection to be applied in those circumstances.
We do not need to go into the crisis in sexually transmitted diseases among people of all ages. However, you may be familiar, Mr. Cook, with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology note No. 217, issued in April of this year and headed ''Teenage sexual health''. One can see from that the trends in sexually transmitted infections in 16 to 19-year-olds. To say that they present a horrendous picture is to understate the situation. We can see that
there have been percentage increases in the incidence of various sexually transmitted disease diagnoses that range from more than 50 per cent. to doubling. We are talking about quite small numbers, but there was a fivefold increase in one sexually transmitted disease.