MP's Civil Partnerships Bill is published

The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths Bill has been put forward by Tim Loughton MP and can be viewed here.

The Bill was presented to Parliament through the ballot procedure on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 – this was the first reading and there was no debate on the Bill.

A second reading of the Bill is scheduled for tomorrow (Friday, February 2).

Explaining the bill in a video on his website, Mr Loughton said it fulfilled four main purposes.

He said: “Firstly, to extend civil partnerships from same-sex couples to opposite-sex couples.

“That’s a simple equality measure, but also helps family stability.

“Secondly, it deals with an anomaly since the nineteenth century that mothers’ names do not appear on marriage certificates, which just seems to me a nonsense that will now be possible in the future.

“Thirdly on stillbirths, a very emotive issue, my bill will allow coroners to be able to investigate still births.

“They do not have the power to do that at the moment.

“And also I’m requiring government to do a review into how we can register those stillbirths that happen before 24 weeks so the state can acknowledge that these children did actually exist and give some closure to the too-many mothers who suffer from the pain of stillbirth.”

He added: “It has been a complicated process to get to this stage and have the wording of the Bill agreed.

“However this is just the start of the process.”