Write to your MP: Urgent action on humanist marriages following Covid-19 problems

Covid lockdowns have highlighted the consequences of failing to recognise humanist ceremonies in England and Wales. Registrars are booked up months in advance and many councils are ignoring the law that says they must offer cheap, no-frills marriage certificates to couples, and not just expensive weddings packages. Couples are struggling to even book a wedding.

In response, the Justice Secretary has announced a temporary order to allow outdoor weddings in the UK – but this won’t do anything to address the barriers facing couples. The order only applies to existing marriage venues, and won’t address the thousands of couples who want a legally recognised humanist ceremony.

We’re calling on the Justice Secretary to ensure humanist marriages are recognised (on the same temporary basis) until the outcome of the pending marriage law review. The order to legalise humanist marriages already exists in draft form, and the UK Government has had the power to make it law since 2013. They are legally recognised in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

With a stroke of his pen, the Justice Secretary could take meaningful action that would greatly support couples and give a real boost to the embattled weddings sector, without prejudicing future government decisions about marriage law reform.

Please, write to your MP and ask them to urge Robert Buckland to take real action for humanist couples and the weddings sector.

More about our campaign for humanist marriage

Humanist weddings are legally recognised in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Jersey, and Guernsey. Parliament voted in 2013 to pave the way for them in England and Wales, but all these years on, Government inaction means these countries are falling very far behind. In July 2020, the High Court ruled, in a case brought by six humanist couples, that the failure to provide legally recognised humanist marriages means that ‘the present law gives rise to… discrimination’ and in light of that, the Secretary of State for Justice ‘cannot… simply sit on his hands’ and do nothing. Therefore, we must ask MPs to persuade the Government to take action.

Tips on adapting the letter

We’ve suggested some text you can use, but please, if you are able, do edit it to make it more personal – we know that MPs are more likely to take notice of personalised emails and queries, which are infinitely more powerful than standard letters.Here are some examples:

  • If you are someone who is planning, or has had, a humanist wedding – please explain this, and the difference legal recognition would make or would have made to your special day.
  • If you are someone who has friends or family who have had a humanist wedding – please describe what the experience was like, and how it differed to other weddings you have been to.
  • If you are someone who has conducted humanist wedding ceremonies – emphasise this, and identify what makes these ceremonies distinct and special.

You can read more about our campaigns work around marriage laws. And if you have any other queries, please contact us at campaigns@humanists.uk.

Thank you for your support.