Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans the Government has to bring forward legislative proposals to update the definition of adultery to include members of the LGBT+ community.
Parliament considered this definition during passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. Adultery in this context has a longstanding definition and can, within the terms of the 2013 Act, take place only between a man and a woman. A same sex extramarital affair can therefore not be cited in support of the legal fact of adultery for the purpose of a divorce petition under the existing law. People can and do, however, use the fact of behaviour in a divorce petition to cite same sex affairs or other kinds of infidelity that do not meet the legal definition of adultery.
Reforms to be implemented by the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 will remove the use of adultery and other facts to show irretrievable breakdown in divorce and dissolution proceedings and replace these with a statement that the marriage or civil partnership has broken down irretrievably. There will therefore no longer be a requirement to evidence matters of a personal nature that can introduce or worsen conflict in the legal process to the detriment of any arrangements for the future, particularly about children. The Government is working to an indicative timetable of autumn 2021.