Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to issue additional guidance to religious organisations on the opening of churches to conduct wedding ceremonies, and if he will make a statement.

To protect public safety, weddings are among the social and religious events that can’t take place at this time. We understand the inconvenience and disappointment this will cause.

In Step 2 of our Roadmap to Recovery strategy we said that we would examine how to enable people to gather to facilitate small marriage ceremonies. Government continues to look at this issue in great detail to see what will be possible while minimising risk.

We understand the frustration couples waiting to marry must be feeling, and as with all COVID-19 restrictions, we will look to ease them as soon as it is safe to do so.