When ‘simplification’ risks becoming delay

The ‘fine detail scrutiny’ of The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill is due to begin in March, when its Committee Stage kicks off. It follows the successful second reading in Parliament in early February.

It feels like it’s taken a long, long time to get even this far. And it has. Quite apart from last year’s intrusion of a general election into the passage of reform legislation, divorce law change has indeed been a long time coming.

So-called ‘no-fault’ divorce has for years been sought and campaigned for. National Family Mediation (NFM) is one of a number of organisations that long lobbied for current outdated laws to be replaced. We argued that the need for one party to show ‘fault’ before divorce can quickly happen fuels bad feeling and causes escalation of simple cases into major courtroom battles – which is good for nobody.

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