Cohabitation Rights Bill [HL]

Lord Ashton of Hyde Excerpts

Friday 12th December 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde (Con)]

My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lord Marks for bringing forward the Cohabitation Rights Bill and providing a further opportunity to debate this important subject. As a novice in these issues—and in marriage itself, with only 27 years under my belt, just over half the number of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss—I have learnt much listening to the contributions of noble Lords, many of whom have long experience of these matters and have been debating them in this House for many years. I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Lester of Herne Hill, who introduced previous Bills on this subject.

The Bill addresses the issue of what rights individual cohabitants should have against each other. At present, when a couple break up, those rights are decided by applying a patchwork of legal rules that sometimes provide one cohabitant with an interest in the other’s property, and by the statutory intestacy and family provision rules when one of the couple dies without making a valid will.

The Bill would, in broad terms, implement recommendations in two Law Commission reports. The first is the report, Cohabitation: The Financial Consequences of Relationship Breakdown, published in July 2007. The Bill would implement most of the recommendations in that report. The second is the report, Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death, which was published in December 2011. The Bill would implement the recommendations in that report relating to cohabitants. The Government have already implemented the other recommendations in this report in the Inheritance and Trustees’ Powers Act 2014, which came into force on 1 October.

Here, I mention my noble friend Lord Lester’s comments about the way that Governments in general approach legal reform—in particular, Law Commission reforms. He will of course have realised that this Government are in fact implementing the Law Commission’s proposals under the insurance Act.

The overall effect of the Bill and the Law Commission’s recommendations in those two reports would be to create a scheme of legal rights and obligations for cohabiting couples. I should say at the outset that while the Government will not oppose the Motion to give the Bill a Second Reading, the Government have reservations about the Bill. It deals with serious personal and family issues on which very different views may be genuinely and firmly held—and, I may say, courteously debated. Today’s debate is testament to that fact, as were our previous debates on these matters. In our debate today, the numbers of speakers for and against—which is obviously not a scientific survey—were equally matched: or rather, virtually equally, given that there were seven speakers.

The Government have consistently taken the view that major changes relating to the rights of cohabitants must be fully considered. The speeches of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, and the noble Lord, Lord Marks, alone would demonstrate the wisdom of proper consideration.

The process of consideration of the recommendations in the Law Commission’s 2007 report of course began under the previous Administration, as the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, mentioned, but had not been concluded when this Government took office. This Government’s priority in family law matters has been to improve the family justice system. The detail of the work that has taken place to date is clearly set out in the Government’s report A Brighter Future for Family Justice: a round up of what’s happened since the Family Justice Review, published in August this year. Examples include: the introduction of the Single Family Court in April; a legal requirement for all separating couples to consider mediation before they can go to court over children and financial matters; and the introduction of a 26-week limit for care and supervision cases.

Our work to improve the family justice system continues, with current priorities including the implementation of measures to improve support for separating parents, taking forward the recent recommendations of the mediation task force and continuing to reduce the length of care cases, in line with the new statutory time limit of 26 weeks. Faced with this programme of work, we knew that we could not do justice with the resource available to the complex and far-reaching recommendations made for the reform of the law relating to cohabitants. We therefore announced in September 2011 that we would not take forward the recommendations set out in the 2007 report in this parliamentary term. We further announced in March last year that, due to the continuing priority of these family justice reforms, the recommendations contained within the 2011 report relating to inheritance rights for cohabitants would not be implemented during this Parliament.

This remains the coalition Government’s position and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, mentioned, that includes the Minister responsible for this area, my right honourable friend Simon Hughes. We do not consider that the matters raised by my noble friend’s Bill and by the Law Commission have yet been properly and fully considered to the extent that they ought to be. We therefore take the view that consideration of the question of rights for cohabitants is properly for the new Parliament. We do not think that taking forward this Bill now, in the limited time that we have in this Parliament, would be the correct approach.

Although we have not reformed the law relating to cohabitants, this does not mean that cohabitants are unable to protect their interests against the legal effect of the ending of their relationship. Cohabitants may, for example, choose the terms on which they jointly own property. This can then provide a basis for distribution on separation or death. Alternatively, cohabitants may create contracts or deeds of trust to make provision for each other. Importantly, cohabitants can also make wills, as my noble friend Lord Marks mentioned, to ensure that their property goes to the person they wish it to go to after their death. We are currently considering what steps we can take to raise awareness of the importance of making a will.

[Lord Lester of Herne Hill]

My noble friend the Minister said that at this stage, the Government think that further work needs to be done. What does he have in mind, given that the Law Commission has given two reports and that the matter was first raised, I think, 12 years ago? We have had all these experts giving their views, including Supreme Court judges. What further work is needed before the Government can reach a conclusion?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

We consider that the next Government, whoever they are, should undertake consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny to decide exactly where they want to go forward. We have not made any commitment on this matter. As far as the Bill is concerned, we do not consider that proper consideration has taken place.

It is for those reasons that, while the Government will not oppose the Motion to give the Bill a Second Reading, we have reservations about the changes to the law proposed in the Cohabitation Rights Bill. Accordingly we maintain our position, outlined in 2011 and 2013, not to support the reform of cohabitation law during this Parliament.