Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Quin (Labour). It was answered by Lord Bach (Labour) on Thursday, 2 April 2009.

Constitution: Royal Marriage and Succession

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to remove the restrictions on heirs to the throne marrying Roman Catholics and to enable equal rights to succession to be enjoyed by daughters of the Sovereign.

Answer: My Lords, this is a complex issue. While there is no question of changing the constitutional role of the monarch or the Church of England as the established church, both my right honourable friends the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor have said that we have to deal with issues of discrimination here. The laws concerning marriage to Catholics and the primacy of male members of the Royal Family should change, but that can happen only with the agreement of all the Commonwealth countries of which Her Majesty the Queen is the Head of State. Given the need for consensus across all the Queen’s realms, this cannot happen overnight.

Secondary information