Clause 253 - Commencement
Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]
3:45 pm
Mr Alan Duncan (Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, International Affairs; Rutland and Melton, Conservative)
It may well be that, for those following our proceedings and thinking about their future plans, this clause is one of the most important. I think that all of us have faced the questions, ''When will this be law? When will people be able to enter into a civil partnership and, crucially, so to organise their financial and legal affairs that they can put into practice the provisions contained in the Bill?''
A measure of confusion has arisen, notwithstanding the momentary hiccup in another place, about the interaction between the Bill that will become an Act and a Finance Bill that will give efficacy to the most crucial of provisions—tenancy, wills and so on—that flow from it. There was a measure of uncertainty in an exchange between my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch and the Minister about what ''the next available Finance Bill'' means. Does it mean the one that is still going through Parliament and might yet have something put into it on Report? Does it mean the next Finance Bill?
A Finance Bill takes a long time to go through Committee. Once that has happened, might there not yet be another full year before everything that we are discussing can practically be implemented? So that we are clear about the affairs that we are discussing, it would be enormously helpful if the Minister would give a clear forward picture about when she predicts that the commencements are likely to be triggered and how they will work hand-in-hand with the Finance Bill that will implement the provisions of the Bill.