PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Marriage: Humanism (20 December 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to section 14 of the Marriage (Same Sex) Couples Act 2013, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of legalising humanist marriages; and whether the Government has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to legalise such marriages.

Asked by:
Naz Shah (Labour)

Assessments of the likely equality impacts and of the potential economic costs and benefits of provision for marriages by non-religious belief organisations, including humanist marriages, were published on gov.uk in June 2014 in the consultation paper on such provision.

The Law Commission has published its report on initial scoping work to identify the issues for potential reform of the law concerning how and where people can get married in England and Wales. The Government is carefully considering the report and will respond in due course.

Answered by:
Sir Oliver Heald (Conservative)
31 January 2017