Family practitioners will be disappointed by the absence of cohabitation reform in King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament.
Hopes reform might have been dampened by the brief inclusion of cohabitation reform in the Labour party manifesto and were all but extinguished, in the short term at least, by the absence of reform from the upcoming legislative programme. It is, says family lawyers, ‘a missed opportunity to provide clarity to millions of couples across the UK who are currently cohabiting and don’t understand that there are few protections in the event of a separation.’
Fran Hipperson, a specialist family law Partner at Irwin Mitchell, said:
“Over the past few decades the law hasn’t kept pace with changes in society, and family organisations and lawyers have called for law reform in this area for years. Labour’s election manifesto confirmed that they wanted to ‘strengthen the rights and protections available to women in co-habiting couples’.
“There was hope that a new Cohabitation Bill might make it into the first Kings Speech of this new Government but sadly it has not made the cut.
“Cohabitation Bills of different shapes and sizes have been proposed before and never proceeded to Royal Assent due to the competing priorities of prior Governments. Whilst legal avenues can be pursued in respect of children, by parents in their capacity as their ‘parent/carer’, claims in their own right in many circumstances are limited or non-existent. We can only hope that this Government will find time over the next five years to give the millions of cohabiting couples the clarity and protection they need and deserve.
“While we await any Government action on cohabitation reforms it’s important that cohabiting couples seek independent legal advice on how to protect their wealth and assets. A cohabitation agreement can cover a range of issues such as the ownership of property, who pays what share of the rent or mortgage, who is responsible for which bills and even who gets the dog in the event of a separation.”
Despite the lack of cohabitation reform, The Law Society of England and Wales has welcomed a focus on criminal justice and in particular measures to reform criminal justice response to violence against women and girls. President Nick Emmerson says
“The prisons crisis has illustrated the dire state of our criminal justice system and civil justice is also crying out for investment after decades of underfunding, Immediate steps that should be taken are a real terms increase in criminal legal aid rates of 15% while wider reform takes place and, for civil legal aid, an immediate £11.3m investment in early advice to sustain the system while the ongoing review takes place.
“We broadly welcome measures intended to improve the criminal justice response to violence against women and girls, deal with knife crime and respond to the criminal exploitation of children. However, writing new laws is not a panacea in the absence of adequate funding of all facets of the criminal justice system and timely, expert advice and support.”
One Response
‘a missed opportunity to provide clarity to millions of couples across the UK who are currently cohabiting and don’t understand that there are few protections in the event of a separation.’ – so we can either educate people as to what their choices are or we force them into an option they may not want. Rights should be clear, it’s far better to treat people as adults who are capable of making their own decisions.