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Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Approved Premises) (Amendment) Regulations 2011

My Lords, if the opinion of the House is tested on this Motion to annul I shall be voting against the proposition of my noble friend Lady O’Cathain. I want to say at the outset of what I hope will be brief remarks that I am sure she knows that I have enormous respect for her. She and I have stood shoulder to shoulder on issues of conscience in this House and will do so again. However, I am bound to say that, in my view, this is about as far from an issue of conscience as we could get. This is a matter of law, essentially. We have heard from some much more balletic legal minds than mine during the debate. Indeed, your Lordships may be under the impression that the head of the pin is extremely crowded. As my noble and, in some cases, noble and learned friends—and in the case of the noble Lord, Lord Lester, my noble and very busy friend—dance on the head of that pin, you will have observed that there is barely room for the legal books they are using. All I will say as one of the QCs in your Lordships’ House is that I think the arguments have been very powerfully put before your Lordships by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lord Lester of Herne Hill, and I agree with them. I hope that your Lordships are not going to fall into the trap of deciding how to vote if there is a Division on the basis that, because some lawyers disagree, we are all going to throw our hands up in the air and leave it to someone else to decide. Let us never forget that we are in the high court of Parliament. With all the knowledge in this Chamber, I venture that your Lordships are well able to reach a decision on the basis of the arguments that have been presented—and the arguments are absolutely overwhelming. During my 40-odd years at the Bar I have advised on issues and gone into, for example, the Court of Appeal with what I had thought was a very arguable case, and found myself metaphorically blood-spattered on the floor within minutes, if not seconds. The legal analyses that we have heard in your Lordships’ House have plainly left us with the opinion—the only responsible opinion—that there is no realistic possibility whatever of religious organisations or priests being forced in any way to do anything in this context which is against their conscience. For the lay men and women in your Lordships’ House it may have been as though it is being argued that the use of the words ““for the avoidance of doubt”” in some way creates a doubt. What could be less logical than that? Moving on to my next point, when I last spoke on this subject, when we really were debating an issue of conscience in this House, I told the House that in my family I have a daughter who is in a gay relationship. She and her partner have a civil partnership and I am fortunate enough to have two wonderful and very energetic grandsons, who are part of that very nuclear indeed family, if I can be forgiven that phrase. However, it goes further than that. The reason I mention my daughter is that she is also a lawyer. She is a solicitor who, among her work, takes a great deal of interest and has much activity in all aspects of the law that reflect the lives of gay men and lesbian women. Therefore, naturally, I have turned to my daughter Eve to see if she can help with what the view of gay lawyers and the gay community is on this issue. Gay lawyers believe this: ““No one is demanding that religious institutions hold civil partnerships; no one is saying that they must honour any gay couple’s request to celebrate their civil partnerships within the traditions of that religion. What this is about is allowing religious civil partnerships if everyone involved is in agreement””. That is the overwhelming view of lawyers who advise gay people, sometimes other gay people, and that is what these provisions say.