My Lords, my noble and learned friend Lord Lloyd, the noble Baroness, Lady O’Cathain, and the noble Lord, Lord Cormack, have added their names to this amendment. I will not repeat the arguments that I made in Committee save to remind your Lordships that I am seizing this opportunity, which has presented itself in no other Bill or foreseeable Bill, to extend the hand of equality and a glimmer of hope of support to the thousands—mostly women; this could be a gender issue—of people who are siblings and have lived together for many years. I also want to help carers, who are often but not always family members, where the younger people have cared for the older ones for many years, but who then find themselves in a bad situation when the older ones die. We now have a chance to recognise and assist them through the study which the Government have already committed to carrying out in the context of civil partnerships.
It was admitted in the European court in Strasbourg that the situation is discriminatory, but it was held that the Government were justified in this discrimination because they had placed the advantages of marriage firmly in one area and nowhere else. The justification for the discrimination that exists against people living together in a co-dependent, supportive and loving arrangement has gone. The Berlin Wall of marriage has come tumbling down and there are others who are coming out who need our help and support in the name of equality.
This is not merely about money, albeit that a great deal of time has been spent on financial arrangements and pensions in the past few days. It is not just about money—it is about the advantages conferred by marriage and civil partnership and, shortly, same-sex marriage. That means the right to live in a home, pensions, medical consent, responsibilities and rights in relation to children and many other rights and obligations attaching to that status.
If noble Lords read the amendment carefully, they will see that I am not pressing for a change in the law in this Bill; I am merely asking that the Government study the situation when they undertake a review of civil partnerships, as they have pledged to do. I cannot imagine anyone hard-hearted enough to block this, although I gather that the Government are not sympathetic, and I fail to understand why. Certain objections to this amendment were voiced at Second Reading and in Committee. The opponents of same-sex marriage argued a while ago that its existence would undermine traditional marriage. This was stoutly denied by, inter alia, the noble Baronesses, Lady Royall and Lady Barker, and the noble Lords, Lord Marks and Lord Alli. Why, they said, should recognising the existence of one union have any impact, let alone an adverse one, on another, causing the older union to be less respected or more fragile? Their arguments were, and are, persuasive. If recognising same-sex marriage has no impact on heterosexual marriage, then recognising a union, contract or arrangement of some sort for siblings and carers likewise can have absolutely no impact on same-sex marriage.
I am not arguing for an exact same union—far from it. The amendment suggests that a formal contract or union could be established which in no way detracts from civil partnerships as they exist now and has no religious connotation or connection. For example, in France, a pacte civil de solidarité—known as “PACS”—exists for some heterosexual couples and same-sex couples; it has most of the advantages and status of marriage, but can be terminated very readily by a letter from one to the other or by a marriage entered into by one of the two. It is popular. It presents a model for adaptation.
The noble Lord, Lord Alli, argued in Committee that lending a helping hand to siblings and carers would devalue civil partnerships. I said then, and I repeat, “I do not get it”. Not only do I not understand the fears and what seems like protectionism of those able to succeed in achieving a same-sex marriage, I cannot understand the logic. There are no limitations on equality; it is not rationed. We can all have it. There is enough to go round. It is not a situation where equality for some means nothing whatever left for others. On the contrary, those who make the case for equality in unions, even with the very small differences that we have debated in the past few days, ought to be generous to others. This is simply a study, and to deny to others what they seek for themselves sets an unfortunate precedent.
Love and commitment come in many forms, not necessarily with sex, as has been pointed out. Ordinary people will recognise the love and care that some family members—if only there were more of them—give to each other and will find it incomprehensible to treat them as less deserving or inferior when the opportunity, which may come once in a generation, presents itself to study their situation in this Bill.
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In Committee, the noble Baroness, Lady Farrington, was worried about incest. That is extraordinary. My amendment refers to people who have cohabited voluntarily for more than five years and are over 18. It cannot be seriously suggested that two sisters, or a father and daughter, who are already living together in a co-dependent household and taking care of each other, are guilty of incest—a punishable crime. The length of cohabitation referred to in my amendment also answers the argument that family members might be forced by others to enter a union. It will be their free choice, because what I am suggesting will come about only if those people had already been living together for a long time. In any case, duress vitiates contracts and marriage in English law.
As I said, if the Government study the situation and decide that these people need help, whatever they come up with need not be called a civil partnership—I am certain it would not be. It might be called a family contract, for example, and be terminable by letter or by the marriage of one of the two. There is nothing wrong with that. If one of two siblings or carers gets married, that is a very happy outcome and their rights and obligations will lie elsewhere.
If noble Lords support this amendment, it will show that we take equality, love and commitment seriously for all and do not confine it to groups which
have attracted support. It will show that we all look out for each other, including for our citizens who are taking care of each other, and that we want to grant them all the equality that they need, as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and our own Equality Act. Equality for one person in no way detracts from the equality of another. As I said, the Berlin Wall that once existed to separate marriage from all other unions has fallen. To mix my metaphors, those who are achieving equality should not pull up the ladder behind them when the opportunity presents itself, as it does today, to extend support—or at least to inquire into the need for support—to those others. The debates on the Bill have proved an epiphany. There is no ration of equality and no limit on respect. I beg to move.