A peer introduced a Bill designed to prevent individuals from being forced into marriage against their will.
Source: Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Bill [HL], Lord Lester of Herne Hill, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Bill
Date: 2006-Nov
An article examined the distribution in Britain of same-sex couples, births to cohabitants, and mothers' withdrawal from the worker role. It said that the 'individualization' of society might be better conceptualized as one part of pre-existing social and structural processes, and that its behavioural assumptions were unjustified.
Source: Simon Duncan and Darren Smith, 'Individualisation versus the geography of "new" families', Twenty-first Century Society, Volume 1 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Nov
A report said that there was a significant cost to the Treasury resulting from couples living apart - whether this resulted from a family break-up, or the couple deciding not to live together in the first place.
Source: Don Draper, Families Compared 2006/07, CARE (020 7233 0455)
Links: Report | CARE press release | Links to appendices
Date: 2006-Nov
An article examined the effect of previous cohabitation and marriage on subsequent partnership transitions.
Source: Fiona Steele, Constantinos Kallis and Heather Joshi, 'The formation and outcomes of cohabiting and marital partnerships in early adulthood: the role of previous partnership experience', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, Volume 169 Issue 4
Links: Article
Date: 2006-Oct
A report said that successive governments had eroded and dismantled policy mechanisms that distinguished married from unmarried cohabiting families. The abolition of the term 'marital status' in government-sponsored family research concealed significant differences in family stability between married and unmarried couples in the early years of parenthood, even after discounting socio-economic factors.
Source: Harry Benson, The Conflation of Marriage and Cohabitation in Government Statistics: A denial of difference rendered untenable by an analysis of outcomes, Bristol Community Family Trust (0117 924 1480)
Links: Report | BCFT press release
Date: 2006-Sep
The provisional divorce rate in England and Wales fell by 8 per cent in 2005, to 13.0 divorcing people per 1,000 married population, compared with 14.1 in 2004.
Source: Press release 31 August 2006, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: ONS press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Aug
An official advisory body began consultation on the options for reforming the law that applied to co-habiting couples on separation and death. It rejected the view that co-habitants should have access to the financial regime that applied on divorce. Instead, it proposed a self-standing scheme of financial remedies for certain co-habitants on separation, available only in strictly limited circumstances. The scheme would not apply to all co-habiting couples.
Source: Cohabitation: The financial consequences of relationship breakdown, LC179, Law Commission (020 7453 1220)
Links: Consultation document | Overview paper | Law Commission press release | FT report | Times report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-May
Statistics were published on marriages and divorces in 2003, and adoptions in 2004, in England and Wales.
Source: Marriage, Divorce and Adoption Statistics: Review of the Registrar General on marriages and divorces in 2003, and adoptions in 2004, in England and Wales, Series FM2 31, Office for National Statistics (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Mar
There were 270,700 marriages in England and Wales in 2004, compared with 270,110 in 2003, according to preliminary statistics - an increase of 0.2 per cent. This was the third successive annual increase in the number of marriages.
Source: Press release 7 February 2006, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: ONS press release
Date: 2006-Feb
An article examined the kind of considerations that were necessary for a better understanding of the nature of risks and uncertainty arising from processes of individualization in society, drawing on in-depth interviews with a sample of co-habiting and married men and women. It explored the extent to which individuals regarded partnering and childbearing as risks, how they sought to manage them, and the implications for policy.
Source: Jane Lewis, 'Perceptions of risk in intimate relationships: the implications for social provision', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 35 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Jan
A report mapped the state of relationships in daily life, including: friendship; love and marriage; relations with children, parents, work colleagues, neighbours and strangers; connexions made over the internet; and our identification with the 'virtual communities' of soap operas.
Source: Alessandra Buonfino and Geoff Mulgan, Porcupines in Winter: The pleasures and pains of living together in modern Britain, Young Foundation (020 8980 6263)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jan
An official advisory body began consultation on the law related to intestacy and family provision claims on death. It said that the existing law suffered from a number of weaknesses, and that reform was therefore needed. In some circumstances at least, a surviving cohabitant could share in a partner's estate without having to go to court.
Source: Intestacy and Family Provision Claims on Death, LC191, Law Commission (020 7453 1220)
Links: Consultation document | Summary | Law Commission press release | Consumer Association press release | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jan