Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have started preparing a shadow body of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has not started preparing a shadow body of the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commissioner. This is a provision of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, on which the Government remains neutral and which is still under consideration by Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy that civil partnerships can be dissolved at any county court.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
As of 22nd April 2014, the County Court no longer has the jurisdiction to consider divorce or civil partnership dissolution applications. These are now considered by the Family Court.
Hearings in divorce and civil partnership dissolution cases are rare, but from April 2015 if a hearing is required then it can be accommodated at any Family Court venue with the appropriate judicial expertise.