UK legislation to allow no-fault divorce for the first time
Reform comes after longstanding calls to remove blame from marriage breakdown
The UK government will introduce legislation to overhaul the divorce system for the first time in more than 40 years and allow couples to apply for divorce without apportioning blame for a marriage breakdown.
The new law, which will apply to marriages and civil partnerships, will remove the need to show “fault” or evidence of the other spouse’s behaviour and will end the right of one party to contest a request for a divorce.
The Ministry of Justice said couples will have a minimum six-month period to “allow for reflection” between requesting a petition for divorce and the act becoming final. The department said the new legislation would be tabled “as soon as parliamentary time allows”.
David Gauke, the justice secretary, said the reform would help end the “blame game” for divorcing couples.
He told the BBC on Tuesday: “Frankly, we are not going to keep marriages together by having a divorce process that just makes it more acrimonious [and] tries to apportion blame in such a way that the couple are likely to have a weaker, poorer relationship subsequently than they would otherwise do.”
Divorce law has remained unchanged since the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, despite repeated calls for reform by judges and lawyers.
Currently divorces are only granted after it can be proved that the marriage has broken down because of adultery, desertion or “unreasonable behaviour”, or because both spouses agree to the divorce and have lived separately for more than two years.
If either party contests the petition, the couple must live apart for more than five years for the divorce to be granted.