Clause 251 - Minor and consequential amendments, repeals and revocations
Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]
3:30 pm
Ms Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Industry and the Regions and Deputy Minister for Women), Department of Trade and Industry; Redditch, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. There is complete illogicality in proclaiming, as I do, and as I suspect the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) would, the value of stable, committed, long-term relationships, but arguing against a provision to support and enable stable, long-term, committed relationships. The hon. Member for Christchurch has done that not only with these amendments but throughout our deliberations on the Bill.
In the Government's view, a civil partnership is a serious commitment with legal consequences parallel to those of civil marriage. It is right that a marriage contracted when one party is already a civil partner should not be treated as valid. It is important for the status and dignity of civil partnerships that people should not be able to marry while they are still registered as civil partners. It is central to the Government's policy on civil partnerships that civil partners should have a legal relationship that precludes either marriage or entry into another civil partnership while the first civil partnership remains in existence. The hon. Gentleman's amendments would undermine that legal relationship. More importantly, they would undermine his own avowed intent to support stable, committed relationships. It is the Bill that supports that intention, and his amendments that undermine it.
Amendment agreed to.
Clause 251, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.