Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office, Edinburgh - Briefing Document Eleven

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Parliamentary Officer:Rev Graham Blount
Phone:
0131 558 8137

Briefing Document No 11 - Page 1 of 5

"Parents and Children"

Whether it is "Back to Basics" or the repeal of "Clause 28", governments which get involved in family issues tend to get their fingers burned. So it is not surprising to detect some nervousness in the Scottish Executive as they bring a White Paper of proposals on Scottish family law ("Parents and Children", available from Mary Kendall on 0131 244 3581, or on the internet at www.scotland.gov.uk/familylaw.htm). In presenting the proposals to Parliament, Jim Wallace (who has already had preliminary meetings with some representatives of churches and other faith communities on this) was keen to emphasise that "We support marriage as the most recognisable and widely accepted way of signalling a couple's commitment to each other and to their life together as parents. Marriage remains a central concept of our family law and nothing in our proposals will change that".

The emphasis in the proposals, however, is on placing the welfare of children at the heart of the matter. Thus, the approaches to divorce and to parental rights and responsibilities for unmarried fathers are presented as attempts to find legal frameworks that are "as supportive for children as possible". There is, of course, good Biblical basis for placing the child at the centre, and churches would be unlikely to quarrel with this emphasis. However, we might be more concerned at the assumption (made explicit at s1.1 of the White Paper) that it is only in the interests of children that the law should intervene in family relationships.

The proposals emerge from a process including work done by the Scottish Law Commission and a consultation paper last year, to which 13 faith communities were among the 95 respondents (see SCPO Briefing Paper on "Improving Scottish Family Law"). They are therefore relatively settled. However, comments are invited, by 8 December, on the 16 proposals and 4, more open, questions - see insert sheet. There is currently "no slot in the timetable" for bringing this as legislation to Parliament.

Issues for the Churches

1. Divorce

The headline proposal here is to reduce the periods of separation constituting grounds for divorce from 5 years without consent to 2 years, and from 2 years with consent to 1 year. Of the options presented in the previous consultation, this was favoured by the majority of respondents, including (with qualifications) the CofS Board of Social Responsibility. The Free Church and Roman Catholic Church (Cardinal Winning) argued against any change, while other Christian responses favoured more radical reform, such as in England and Wales.

There is a tension between the view that "this would send out the wrong signal, namely, that if divorce is to be made easier, therefore marriage can be entered into with less forethought" (Cardinal Winning), and those, more sympathetic to the Executive's desire to minimise acrimony, who argue that holding people for longer periods in relationships that have irretrievably broken down does not enhance anyone's view of marriage.