PM announces that new laws are to be made bringing rights to those heterosexual couples not wishing to marry to obtain legal recognition of their commitment to one another by way of a civil partnership.

We anticipate these reforms will be hugely welcome when considered in the light of  the Office of National Statistics’ s most recent publication on families and households.  It reports that there were 12.9 million married or civil partner couple families in the UK in 2017. This remains the most common type of family. The second largest family type was the cohabiting couple family at 3.3 million families, followed by 2.8 million lone parent families. At present, cohabitees have little to no protection on death and/or separation outside of complex (and costly) court proceedings. These reforms will hopefully bring the law in line with current society trends.

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