Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the suitability of (a) the Registration of Marriage Bill [Lords], (b) the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Bill and (c) the Registration of Marriage (No. 2) Bill to act as legislative vehicles to allow the Government to change the law in order to allow a mother's details to be recorded on marriage certificates; and if she will make a statement.

Any change to the content of the marriage entry to include mothers’ names would ideally also bring forward reform to how marriages are registered to introduce efficiencies and create a more secure system for the maintenance of marriage records. This would require changes to primary legislation.

The Registration of Marriage Bill [ Lords ] and the Registration of Marriage (No 2) Bill seek to make these changes to current legislation, in particular to the Marriage Act 1949. Details relating to the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration etc) Bill have not yet been published.