Clause 4 - Extension of Part 4 of 1996 Act to non-cohabiting couples
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
It is fairly clear that the Government's intention in clause 4 is to close a significant loophole in the protection afforded by the Family Law Act 1996 by including within it non-cohabiting couples. The aim was to include intimate personal relationships of significant duration. We could probably spend the rest of our 10 sittings discussing what precisely that might mean to each of us. In the Bill we define it in the broadest terms, and of course it will be for the court in individual circumstances to determine whether it applies in a particular case.
It certainly is not our intention to include long-term platonic friendships.