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Leaders of the Bar have welcomed the government’s long-awaited consultation on reforming the legal rights of unmarried couples, describing it as an opportunity to modernise family law and strengthen protections for financially vulnerable partners and survivors of domestic abuse.
The consultation, announced by the Ministry of Justice, proposes a range of reforms affecting cohabiting couples, including granting unmarried partners automatic inheritance rights where a partner dies intestate. The government said the changes could benefit more than 3.5 million unmarried couples by providing greater financial security and legal certainty.
The proposals also seek to improve financial protections for domestic abuse survivors leaving relationships, reduce the financial difficulties faced by separating cohabitees and make pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements legally binding.
The Ministry of Justice said the reforms are intended to bring family law into line with modern family structures and relationships.
Responding to the announcement, Bar Council chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said it was encouraging to see the government addressing the lack of legal protections available to those who are financially vulnerable at the end of a relationship.
She said the law should provide effective remedies where there has been dependency, disadvantage or abuse while also delivering legal certainty. Brimelow added that any reforms must be supported by a family justice system that is adequately resourced and accessible to those who require it.
Sam Hillas KC, Leader of the Northern Circuit, said the consultation’s focus on securing fair outcomes for children and victims of domestic abuse reflected two of the most significant shortcomings of the current legal framework.
Hillas, who has campaigned for changes to family law relating to domestic abuse, said the law had remained out of step with modern society for too long and had failed to protect many unmarried partners following separation. She also highlighted the need for greater recognition of the impact of domestic abuse, noting that its consequences cannot always be measured in financial terms.
She said women and children were often those most affected by the existing legal position and described the consultation as an opportunity for the government to address longstanding injustices.
The consultation marks the latest step in a wider review of family law relating to cohabitation, an area that has been the subject of repeated calls for reform from practitioners, judges and representative bodies amid the continued growth in the number of couples choosing to live together without marrying or entering a civil partnership.
