Clause 4 - Successful applications
Gender Recognition Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr Tim Boswell (Daventry, Conservative)
I am perfectly happy to go along with what the hon. Gentleman has just said. I, too, support the civil partnerships legislation in principle. I am anxious that it should be enacted and, as I said when considering this Bill on Second Reading, it is almost the only way of solving the dilemma with which the Committee has wrestled extensively. The only issue is whether we provide for a special procedure that annuls the marriage prospectively against the creation of a civil partnerships Bill, or whether we allow for this Bill's provisions, which would allow an interim certificate to be issued—possibly, as I intend to argue later, within an inadequate time scale of validity—and then create a civil partnerships Bill. The difference between us is procedural, but the issue of principle still divides us. However, we look forward to the Minister's response to the perfectly reasonable points that have been made.