This House of Lords Library briefing provides background information in advance of the second reading of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill [HL] in the House of Lords on Friday 21 October 2016.
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill [HL]: Briefing for Lords Stages (148 KB , PDF)
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill [HL] is a private member’s bill introduced by Baroness Tonge (Independent Liberal Democrat). It seeks to raise the minimum age of consent to marriage or civil partnership from 16 to 18. It further seeks to amend the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to create an offence of “causing” a person under the age of 18 to enter into a marriage or civil partnership. As well as setting out the changes sought by the Bill, this briefing points to similar proposals considered by the House of Commons Committee on the Age of Majority in 1967 and also touches upon the history of the law of the minimum age of marriage.
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill [HL]: Briefing for Lords Stages (148 KB , PDF)
This proposed law seeks to reform pensions across the public sector. It would also make other changes to the rules related to judicial offices. The pension reforms partly respond to a finding of unlawful discrimination in existing schemes and are partly aimed at improving the operation of public sector pensions. The changes relating to judicial offices are intended to improve recruitment and retention in the judiciary.
![Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill [HL]](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Government-VIGS-1232x924.jpg)
Following Deaf Awareness Week this month, this article looks at British sign language and a campaign for the Government to provide an on-set BSL interpreter at the live televised Covid-19 briefings. It also looks at the introduction of BSL interpretation to certain parliamentary proceedings, most notably for prime minister’s questions.
Women have been specifically affected by the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Reasons for this include that they are over-represented in some of the worst-hit sectors, and that they do a greater share of unpaid care. The Government has said it wants women’s economic empowerment to be a focus in the post-pandemic recovery period. But it has faced criticism for not taking enough account of gender equality in its approach.
