Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2017 to Question 67372, on civil partnerships, if she will set out (a) how and (b) within what timeframe the Government intends to undertake its assessment of the impact of equalisation of civil partnerships between same and different sex couples, in accordance with the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Steinfeld and Another v Secretary of State for Education (2017); and if she will make a statement.

As the Government has said previously, we carried out a consultation on the future of civil partnerships in 2014. The review found that there was no clear consensus on the future of civil partnerships. Given the lack of any consensus, the Government did not change the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

The decision not to change the law was judicially reviewed last year and the Government won in the High Court. The Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal against the High Court judgment and confirmed that the Government’s approach is lawful.

We welcome the Court’s ruling. We will carefully consider this judgment and its implications before deciding on our next steps.

We understand that the claimants in this case have requested an appeal of the Court’s decision.