Bishop steers marriage registration Bill through Parliamentary proces
from ACNS:
The Church of England’s Bishop of St Albans, Alan Smith, has become the first bishop in 20 years to steer draft legislation through the entire legislative process in the House of Lords, the upper house of Britain’s Parliament. At present, marriage registers include the name of the bride and groom’s fathers. If the Registration of Marriage Bill becomes law it will allow the parties’ mothers to be named as well. The Bill also provides for the creation of electronic marriage registers in place of hand-written registers, which often lead to mistakes when details are added to electronic databases for searching.
The final stage of the legislative process – Third Reading – took place today. The Bill took just about one minute to clear its Third Reading stage without debate and was passed unanimously.
“I am delighted that the House of Lords has backed this Bill, which now gives the House of Commons an opportunity to correct a clear and historic injustice,” Bishop Alan said after the Bill cleared its House of Lords stages. ““As someone who has performed hundreds of marriages, it has always seemed shocking to me that mothers are systematically overlooked.
“This injustice dates to 1837 when children were viewed as a father’s property and little consideration was given to women. In this centenary year of women’s suffrage it is time to make this long overdue change.
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