The Scottish Government has announced a consultation on a series of proposed changes to family law.
- implementing the Scottish Law Commission’s recommendations to improve cohabitants’ rights following separation;
- cohabitants’ rights where their partner dies without leaving a will;
- whether the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership should be raised from 16 to 18, and on extending the criminal offence of forced marriage or forced civil partnership;
- extending the simplified divorce and dissolution procedures in Scotland to include cases where there are children under 16 and no dispute about their welfare; and
- whether there should be qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies with celebrants who solemnise marriages and register civil partnerships.
The consultation paper contains full background information.
On the issue of the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership, it notes that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding observations in 2023 on the combined 6th and 7th periodic reports of the UK recommended that the UK “Prohibit all marriages of children under 18 years of age, without exception, in Scotland, Northern Ireland and all overseas territories and the Crown dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man.” It also notes that in 2023, very few marriages in Scotland – around 0.07% (21 out of 26,753) – Involved a party or parties under 18.
On the issue of qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies to solemnise marriage or register civil partnership, it notes that
“The definition of ‘religious or belief body’ in the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 provides that the body must be an organised group of people which meets regularly for religious worship or the principal object (or one of the principal objects of which) is to uphold or promote philosophical beliefs and which meets regularly for that purpose”
and suggests that
“it seems reasonable for bodies when they are seeking authorisation to solemnise marriage or register civil partnership to provide information to the Scottish Government or National Records of Scotland on how often the body meets for religious worship or to uphold or promote philosophical beliefs and what these meetings are about. The Scottish Government would plan to lay down a qualifying requirement accordingly”.
Further:
“The qualifying requirements would not apply to Church of Scotland ministers or deacons when they solemnise mixed sex marriage, given the Church of Scotland’s position as the national church, which is reflected in the 1977 Act”.
The consultation closes on 21 April 2026.
When the minimum age for marriage in England was raised to 18 the fact that Scotland provided a loophole for youngsters sufficiently determined to get married was the elephant in the room. I am interested to see that so few of them have used it – even if all the 21 marriages in 2023 were between parties who were both 16 or 17, that makes 42 people – which makes the proposal for change look like a solution looking for a problem.
I remember when Gretna Green did a roaring trade in marriages for runaway couples not only from England but also from both parts of Ireland – and the Netherlands! I expect that most marriages there are by choice these days but if anyone knows otherwise do tell!
I think the critical point is the observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.