Marriage reform: Minimum legal age set to rise to 18 in NI

Plans are being prepared to update Northern Ireland's marriage laws

The minimum age at which people can get married or enter a civil partnership in Northern Ireland could increase from 16 to 18 under planned legal reforms.

Currently, 16 and 17-year-olds can tie the knot, but only if they have permission from a parent or a guardian.

But that looks set to change after a public consultation showed overwhelming support to raise the minimum age to 18.

The plans would also give equal status to religious marriage and non-religious belief marriage, like humanist unions.

That reform follows a landmark court ruling in 2017, in which bride-to-be Laura Lacole successfully challenged the government's refusal to recognise her upcoming humanist wedding as a legal marriage, in the absence of a separate ceremony.

The proposals to reform Northern Ireland's marriage law were announced by Stormont's Finance Minister Conor Murphy on Friday.

His department has responsibility for civil law reform, including private family law.

The Department of Finance held a public consultation last year, seeking views on the proposals to update the law and received 78 responses.

Laura Lacole campaigned for legal recognition of humanist weddings

"Support for increasing the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership to 18 years was close to unanimous, with 97% of online respondents in support of the change," Mr Murphy said.

He also added that a "clear majority supported the proposal to put belief marriage on an equal footing with religious marriage".

In a separate ministerial statement outlining his proposals, the finance minister said there were currently "only a few dozen marriages a year" which involved people aged either 16 or 17.

He also confirmed that to date, there have been no civil partnerships with participants from that age group who require parental or guardian permission.

He also pointed out that both the British and Irish governments have recently raised the minimum age for marriage to 18 in their respective jurisdictions.

With regard to marriages involving people who follow non-religious belief systems, like humanism, Mr Murphy pointed to the implications of the Laura Lacole ruling five years ago.

"High Court and Court of Appeal judgments in 2017 oblige government, on grounds of equality of treatment, to act to place belief marriage on the same legislative footing as religious marriage," he explained.

"While temporary arrangements are currently in place to give effect to these judgments, full equality signalled by the courts will require amendment to the current Marriage (NI) Order 2003, which recognises only civil and religious marriage."

Mr Murphy added: "Under the existing temporary arrangements, which have now been in place for more than five years, belief marriage has become commonplace in this jurisdiction."

Figures released in 2019 showed a significant rise in the demand for humanist wedding ceremonies since the landmark ruling.

Mr Murphy said his department will begin work to allow for the preparation of legislation aimed at bringing the changes into effect.

However, he added: "It will only be possible to bring forward and enact this legislation once there is a functioning assembly and executive."

The Northern Ireland Assembly is not currently functioning after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refused to nominate a new Speaker in protest over the post-Brexit trading arrangements known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.