The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill is continuing its progress through the Scottish Parliament, with the Equal Opportunities Committee recently publishing its Stage 1 report on the Bill.
The majority of Committee members have apparently supported the general principles of Bill, although there are a minority who haven’t given their support, either because they disagree in principle or because they are not convinced that the Bill currently has adequate protections in place.
The Committee has asked the Scottish Government for consideration on a number of issues including:
- Stakeholders varying views on the approach taken in the Bill on protecting celebrants of faith and religious organisations’ freedom to conduct legally valid marriages in keeping with their doctrines.
- An amendment raised by the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities to redefine non-civil marriages, to more prominently reflect the distinction between religious ceremonies and belief ceremonies.
- An opinion expressed by the Humanist Society Scotland that the treatment in marriage law of the Church of Scotland affords it a privileged status.
- The spousal consent to be removed from the gender-recognition process.
The Stage 1 debate on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill will take place in November.
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