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7.50 pm
Sir Ivan Lawrence (Burton): It seems obvious that a Bill that addresses the awful problem of the growing number of divorces in our country, that follows a large-scale consultation exercise that has effectively been going on for three years, that has received support from a large number of agencies--from Relate, the leader of the Catholic Church, the Christian Churches, the synagogues, Marriage Care, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Law Society to name but a few--and that does something to strengthen the institution of marriage, should have the support of the House. I find it difficult to follow much of the criticism that has been levelled against the Bill. Those who want to get rid of easy divorces and those who want to provide better protection for the children of a marriage should welcome the Bill with open arms.
There are currently four major faults with the divorce law for those of us who think that marriage is important. First, divorce is now, to all intents and purposes, available on demand. Is that what the Bill's objectors want? Secondly, by alleging fault and inventing and exaggerating, someone can obtain a divorce as soon as three months after he or she petitions for it--72 per cent. of all divorces are secured on that basis within six months. Is that what the Bill's objectors want?
Thirdly, the process causes bitterness and unnecessary distress to the children caught in the middle, who are often made the excuse for the divorce. Is that what the Bill's objectors want? Fourthly, there is little attempt made, or encouragement given by the present system, to save a marriage that can be saved. Once one of the parties does not want to be married any more, all he or she has to do is to reach for the divorce gun. Is that what the Bill's objectors want?
Why anyone who cares about marriage should think that the law should remain as it is and that it is better than the Bill is beyond me. The Lord Chancellor's proposals will considerably strengthen marriage and considerably reduce divorce--for several reasons. First, there will be no quickie divorces--everyone will have to wait a year
before anything can be done and before getting a divorce. That means that, in many cases, there will be no divorce for 18 months or more after proceedings have been started.
Secondly, there will be no divorces at all under the legislation for a year after it is implemented. Thirdly, if the element of fault is taken out of the legislation, there will be much less bitterness to distress the children. Fourthly, if everyone has to wait a year or so and is encouraged to seek conciliation, many marriages will be saved. That is why Relate, with all its experience, so favours the process. That is why the divorce rate has fallen in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where such a system operates.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Mr. Patten) was wrong when he said that the rates had risen there--they have fallen in all those countries after a short period in which they increased. Fifthly, through mediation, those who are determined to divorce can use the year to get their financial and property arrangements in order, which will remove or reduce much of the misery for the children and the expenditure of court time--to say nothing of costs.
It is a flight of fancy--and shows a lack of awareness about today's world--for hon. Members to pretend that fault is now a necessary element in saving marriages and protecting the children; it is no such thing. It may have been in the 1900s when women were chattels--the property of their lord and master. But the reason why divorce has doubled and the marriage rate has halved in the past 20 years is precisely that fault is being deployed as a reason for divorce. If I am wrong about that, why are as many as 72 per cent. of all marriages ended with allegations of adultery and unreasonable behaviour after only six months? The answer is that fault is used as an excuse--an easy excuse--for divorce. There can be no other reason. Fault does not save marriages; it is being used as a weapon to destroy them more quickly.
In the 1990s, what is "fault"? Who can really judge the truth? I should think that most of us have experienced surgeries when the biggest complaint against the legal system has been that the judge believed the "lies" told by one spouse about the other in the divorce court. Some people pretend that most of the cases involving fault are one sided, but the truth that can be learnt from every divorce judge is that most allegations are a matter of "six of one and half a dozen of the other". How on earth is "fault" then worth defending? In 1996 we should say goodbye to fault as a ground for divorce and bid it good riddance; it has become totally counter productive.
We should start to do what we can to save marriages that can be saved and to make the dissolution of those that cannot be saved as painless as possible for the parties and children involved. To accept the principles of the proposed regime is not, however, the end of the matter.
Mr. Nicholls:
Will my hon. and learned Friend give way?
Sir Ivan Lawrence:
I am sorry but I cannot give way as I have just 10 minutes for my speech.
Many details need to be worked out and there has been much useful discussion in another place. The Government have responded with a number of significant
improvements to the original scheme; they are on record, so I shall not burden the House by listing them. But I must mention one.
I very much welcome the pension splitting arrangements which are under consideration. They are extremely complicated and it is impossible to implement them immediately without creating more problems than they solve. I welcome the acceptance that pension splitting is right in principle and the Government's determination to create a scheme that works. It is not widely enough appreciated by people who have not gone through a divorce that, under existing law, pension income is taken into account in the assessment of future assets.
I have heard some strange objections to the Bill raised in the House this afternoon. In her question to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, my hon. Friend the Member for Batley and Spen (Mrs. Peacock) seemed to think that people may enter into marriage in order to secure a hire purchase agreement. I do not think that that is why people enter marriage. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) seemed to think that a marriage can be sustained where one party wants it and the other does not. He must have been reading too many Galsworthy books, "I shouldn't wonder". It is another era and he will have to read about Soames Forsyte to realise just how that family looked on marriage and the fact that if one party did not like it, that was just too bad.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Coombs) argued that children do better in bad marriages than if there is no marriage--that may be true for some, but for others it is not. In any event, my hon. Friend misses the point: the Bill seeks to save marriage--that will help children in the marriage, even if the marriage is a bit rocky. My hon. Friend should support, not oppose, the Bill because if it helps children, it answers his point.
Besides, the measure largely refers to marriages that are breaking up, not about bad marriages that are sticking together. The removal of fault does not harm the chances of the partners in a bad marriage remaining together, but it eases the misery of the children from the marriage that is breaking up.
The hon. Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng) spoke in support of the Bill, but then began tilting at a windmill when referring to victims of domestic violence. No battered wife should have to mediate with her tormentor, as he will see if he reads the Bill and the words of the Lord Chancellor, who said in a press release:
I hope that the hon. Gentleman will be less heated about that aspect of the legislation. So, I disagree with a great many of the arguments presented by those who oppose the Bill.
We should, if it were possible, address preparation for marriage in the future: nothing could do more to make marriage more meaningful, and therefore less likely to be dissolved. It might help if we could devise some way of requiring preparation for marriage. However, the infringement of civil liberties and the cost to the taxpayer or to those anticipating marriage might be substantial. That is why I am afraid that we must leave that issue for the future.
Ms Jean Corston (Bristol, East):
I welcome the Bill with reservations, as someone who has been through the trauma of divorce and who practised for a time at the family Bar dealing with matters concerning children, domestic violence and ancillary relief.
There is a contradiction inherent in the present divorce law. In theory, there is only one ground for divorce--irretrievable breakdown--but it must be proved by one of five facts. Two of those facts are based on fault: adultery and unreasonable behaviour. When the Divorce Reform Bill was enacted in 1969, it was assumed that most divorcing couples would wait two years for a divorce instead of relying on the allegations of adultery or unreasonable behaviour.
As we have heard, in 1993 73 per cent. of divorce petitions were based on one or other of those two faults, because they are often seen as a convenient way of getting a quickie divorce. As many hon. Members have said, that can take as little as three or four months. That is simply not long enough for people to think through the consequences of divorce, to consider whether divorce is appropriate or to resolve all the issues arising from divorce. Some hon. Members have said that it is just about money, but it is also about the family home, who lives in it, who will pay the mortgage or the rent, and the resolution of financial matters and issues relating to the children--who they will live with, contact with the other parent and other family members, and child support considerations.
As it is almost impossible to defend a divorce petition nowadays, allegations of fault that are difficult to challenge heighten tension and foster acrimony. That potentially poisonous climate inevitably affects children.
It is time to recognise that the two-year wait under current law is too long--most couples who adopt a mature and a constructive attitude can resolve issues within a year. It is important to remember also that time is a different concept for children. All people with children know that, if one tells them that they must wait a week for something, they think that it is eternity. When I was in court, I would often hear someone suggest an adjournment of three months or so on the ground that it would give the lawyers time to write some letters. However, three months is an eternity for children: it is wrong to make them wait two years before their lives regain a settled pattern. I believe that a one-year waiting period, as a time for reflection and resolution of consequential issues, is about right.
When I listen to the critics of the Bill, I remember the campaign against the Divorce Reform Act 1969. I remember some woman--I do not recall who it was--describing it as a "Casanova's charter". I do not know whether anyone else remembers it, but she said that women would be discarded like old slippers. However, women are more likely to petition for divorce. In 1993
women petitioned for two and a half times as many divorces as men. Perhaps we should acknowledge that men and women have different expectations of marriage and we should ask what so many women appear to find so unsatisfactory about marriage. Critics of the Bill have said that it will undermine marriage and family life, but the Government have done little to nurture and support families--a point to which I shall return.
I turn now to the subject of mediation during the one-year period for reflection. I emphasise that it is not a cheap option and it will not always be appropriate--I agree with what my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, South (Mr. Boateng) said about mediation and the victims of domestic violence. I am pleased to say that mediation, like other good ideas such as health centres and victim support, started in Bristol. I am proud to be a patron of the Bristol Family Mediation Service. Through my contacts with that service and from my experience at the family Bar, I have seen how mediation assists in the mature resolution of issues that are potentially a source of major conflict. The current system encourages irresponsibility.
It is ironic that, as the Government extol mediation, local services are under threat from underfunding or must levy charges that are beyond the reach of many. I have some reservations about the proposals for mediation. For example, there should be a range of options to ensure privacy during information sessions or meetings. Both parties should have access to independent legal advice so that the weaker party in a marriage--economically, it is often the woman--does not lose out. As other hon. Members have said, there is not enough emphasis on reconciliation in the Bill.
Domestic violence is a huge social issue about which I have spoken often in the House. Current legislation in that area is a mess. Injunctions are available under the Matrimonial Homes Act 1967, the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 and under the inherent jurisdiction of the court. Half a million violent assaults on family members occur each year, and they are usually perpetrated against women and children. It is estimated that 750,000 children are affected by domestic violence. The Bill is mainly a consolidation measure. For the first time, the remedies will be available to all courts which will operate the same law. That will be of great benefit to those seeking injunctions and to their legal advisers.
In summer 1994, the all-party parliamentary group on parenting, of which I am an officer, held public hearings in the Grand Committee Room. We heard evidence over three weeks from a large number of organisations and interested people and we produced a cross-party list of recommendations supporting marriage and families and seeking to improve parenting skills. We called for co-ordination within Government Departments to ensure that families receive the necessary support and for relationship education funding.
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children conference in Bath, the subject of which was "Listening to Children". A 15-year-old student attending the conference said that she was alarmed to think that in a few years' time she could get married and have children. She said that she thought she should receive some parenting education first, and I agree with her.
The all-party parliamentary group agreed that there should be preventive work with families to catch problems early and to help families through crises.
We called for a reform of the benefits system to remove disincentives to work and to address poverty in families and low-paid work. Many families with children who are caught up in divorce are poor because they can just manage to run one home on two wages and, therefore, find it impossible to run two homes. We also agreed that it was important to provide and encourage good quality childcare, to reduce stress and to help families out of poverty.
"Clearly there will be cases where the breakdown of the marriage has been too painful for couples to negotiate in this way, and legal aid will be available in situations where mediation is not appropriate."
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