Equality Bill

My Lords, in speaking to Amendment 129ZA, I shall speak also to Amendments 129ZB to 129ZD and to the amendments to Clauses 208 and 209, which are related. The new clauses proposed under the amendments would remove three minor rules of law which treat husbands and wives unequally, and they equalise the legal position in respect of civil partners. The amendments would not only bring our law up to date by eliminating provisions that are clearly discriminatory and redundant, but would also remove the existing incompatibilities in UK law with Article 5 of Protocol 7 to the European Convention on Human Rights. That article protects the right to equality between spouses, except for any special provision the state needs to make to protect children. These amendments would leave it open to the Government to proceed with signature and ratification of Protocol 7 to the convention should it choose to do so, as I hope it will, to fulfil the long-standing commitment. The proposed new clause to be inserted under Amendment 129ZA abolishes the common-law duty for a husband to maintain his wife. This rule has long been superseded by statutory remedies for obtaining maintenance during a marriage. Consequently, I believe that there is no longer a need for a common law duty to maintain in favour of one spouse only. The new clause set out in Amendment 129ZB abolishes a second common law rule, that of the presumption of advancement. This presumption discriminates against husbands and is outdated. The presumption of advancement is a rule of evidence in court proceedings which provides that where there is no evidence to the contrary, a husband or father is presumably making a gift when he transfers property to his wife or child. But when a wife transfers property to her husband or a mother to her child, the presumption of advancement does not apply. Unless there is evidence to the contrary, she is presumed not to be making a gift and her husband or child hold the property on trust for her. The effect of the presumption of advancement is clearly discriminatory and its abolition will not have any unfair or undesirable effects, and therefore this amendment seeks to abolish the presumption. In order that the UK can ratify Protocol 7, abolition of the presumption of advancement is extended to Northern Ireland. I understand that the Northern Ireland Executive have agreed to this step in principle and will make the necessary arrangements for a legislative consent motion. I am grateful for their assistance. The final rule to be addressed is the statutory provision in respect of money and property derived from a housekeeping allowance currently in Section 1 of the Married Women’s Property Act 1964. It provides that if a husband pays a housekeeping allowance to his wife, any savings or property derived from this allowance in the absence of an agreement to the contrary belongs to the husband and the wife in equal shares. However, if the wife pays the allowance to the husband, the Act makes no similar provision. Amendment 129ZC amends Section 1 of the 1964 Act so that it applies equally to husbands and wives, and money and property derived from a housekeeping allowance are owned by the husband and wife in equal shares regardless of who paid or received the allowance. The final clause set out in Amendment 129ZD inserts a new Section 70A into the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to provide for the equal division of housekeeping allowances paid by one civil partner to the other. This simply mirrors the effect of the previous amendment to the Married Women’s Property Act for civil partners, ensuring that their rights are developed in parallel. I conclude by stressing that these amendments are long overdue and represent an important step in remedying outdated inequalities in our domestic law. In addition, I hope that the Government, if they accept them, will make good their commitment, which is on the record, to sign and ratify Protocol 7 to the convention, dating from the 1997 White Paper, Rights Brought Home. I beg to move.