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# System prepended metadata

title: Matrimonial Causes Bill

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# Matrimonial Causes Bill

**A**

**B I L L**

**T O**

**Amend the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 to permit an uncontested divorce; and for connected purposes.**

*BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:*

**1  Interpretation**  
In this Act, “the 1973 Act” refers to the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973.

**2  Uncontested divorce**  
The 1973 Act is amended by inserting a new paragraph after paragraph 1(2)(e) as follows:—

> (f) that the parties to the marriage have both consented to the dissolution of the marriage.

**3  Section 3 repealed**  
Section 3 of the 1973 Act is repealed in its entirety.

**4  Short title, commencement, and extent**  
(1) This Act may be cited as the Matrimonial Causes Act 2020.  
(2) This Act comes into force upon receiving Royal Assent.  
(3) This Act has the same extent as the 1973 Act.  

**This bill is authored by the Rt Hon. Dame lily-irl, MP for the East of England, on behalf of the Official Opposition, and is co-sponsored by the Green Party.**

### Opening Speech

Mr Speaker,

I beg to move that the bill be read a second time.

Mr Speaker, I believe that divorce law in the United Kingdom is in need of review. The sad fact is, Mr Speaker, that some people who get married cannot make married life work. And the state ought not force two people who do not wish to remain married to remain in the legal bonds of matrimony.

This bill is simple - it permits two people who are married to petition the court for divorce on the grounds that neither wishes to remain married to the other. It also removes the unfair and arbitrary restriction on a ban on divorce for one year after the initial marriage.

It is regrettable that not all marriages will last for the lifetime of their participants. But to ignore this fact is folly, and to impose such arduous restrictions on the dissolution of a marriage is simply a holdover from a society that no longer exists in Britain. I commend this bill to the House.
