My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who participated in this mini debate. I particularly thank my noble friend Lord Elton for concerning himself so positively in looking at the conversion from civil partnerships to marriage. I think that the right reverend Prelate may have invited himself to some civil partnership ceremonies now that he has mentioned that he has not yet had such an invitation.
We have previously debated Clause 9 in Committee and the nature of the process that will apply for couples in a civil partnership to convert that partnership to a marriage. I was very grateful to my noble friend Lord Elton for agreeing to withdraw a similar amendment to this in Committee on the basis that it was appropriate to await the Government’s response to the recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. I hope that he is pleased with the Government’s decision, which I explained
earlier this evening, to accept the Committee’s recommendation on Clause 9, so that the regulations under this clause would be made by the Secretary of State, rather than the Registrar General, and that the first such regulations would be subject to the affirmative procedure, and subsequent regulations subject to the negative procedure. Therefore, we will be debating this further.
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Clause 9 includes the power to make regulations on the detailed process of conversions, which it would not be appropriate to set out on the face of the Bill. This will follow discussions with interested parties, which have already started. I note the noble Lord’s sympathy for those who may be affected by this, as well as that of the right reverend Prelate and my noble friend Lady Cumberlege. I assure them that their views and those of others will be fed in.
However, it would not be appropriate to go into further detail at this point, other than to reiterate that we do not envisage conversion to be akin to a marriage ceremony, nor that it must take place in registered places of worship as this amendment seems to envisage. We must remember, as the noble Lord, Lord Alli, and the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, pointed out, that couples in a civil partnership have already made a public commitment to each other and formed a legal relationship with equivalent rights and responsibilities to those of marriage. They may not want another ceremony or the costs associated with a more complicated procedure. Of course, we envisage that couples should have the ability to opt for a ceremony, as noble Lords have pointed out, if that is what they wish.
We have had a very sympathetic discussion in this debate as we look forward to the conversions to marriage. That is very encouraging. I hope that my noble friend will be willing to withdraw his amendment in the light of the government amendments that we agreed earlier and that he will be pleased that Parliament will have the opportunity to consider the detail of the process in due course. I am sure that we will have interesting debates at that time. I therefore hope that my noble friend will be content to withdraw his amendment.