Clause 251 - Minor and consequential amendments, repeals and revocations
Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Ms Jacqui Smith (Minister of State (Industry and the Regions and Deputy Minister for Women), Department of Trade and Industry; Redditch, Labour)
I thank my hon. Friend for that observation. He is right; an awful lot of work has gone into trawling legislation that, as I suggested, goes back to the 1600s and the Declinature Acts. There is an awful lot of legislation to which minor and consequential amendments have been necessary because of the policy intentions of the Bill. I pay tribute to all those who did the trawling.
As I suggested, the amendments are largely technical in nature. They are uncontroversial and complement those in the Bill. The additions to schedules 27 and 28 add references to a civil partner alongside existing references to a spouse. In several cases, the amendments provide clarification. For example, they clarify that the same exemption from giving evidence and the same limitations to that exemption would apply to civil partners as to married couples.
An example is the amendment to the Civil Evidence Act 1968 and the addition of new clauses 3 and 7, which ensure that civil partners are exempt from liability to be a compellable witness against their partner. That exemption is similar to the one currently enjoyed by spouses. Proposed subsection (1) of new clause 3, to be added after clause 82, inserts into the Bill provision that:
''Any enactment or rule of law relating to the giving of evidence by a spouse''
will also apply to the giving of evidence by a civil partner. However, subsection (2) sets out that the general provision in subsection (1) is subject to
''any specific amendment made by or under this Act which relates to the giving of evidence by a civil partner.''
In some cases, it will be helpful to amend specific provisions in other enactments or rules.