Jim Shannon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on the introduction of legally binding pre-nuptial agreements.

Simon Hughes

The Law Commission published its report on Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements on 27 February 2014.

The report focuses on clarifying the law in the areas of financial ‘need’ and nuptial agreements and makes 3 broad recommendations:

1. that written guidance is produced on financial need;

2. that the feasibility is assessed of producing numerical guidance to help couples to calculate the likely financial outcome of divorce or dissolution; and

3. that pre-nuptial agreements are made statutorily binding.

The Government is grateful to the Law Commission for their hard work on this complex area of law.

The Government is giving the report careful consideration. An interim response will be published by August 2014 and a full response by February 2015. These are the timescales established in protocol between the Law Commission and Government.