Weddings conducted by a humanist celebrant can be performed in
any part of the UK or crown dependencies, but they don’t come with legal
recognition in England, Wales, or the Isle of Man.
This is discriminatory, because religious people have a choice
between being married by a civil registrar or being married by a representative
of their religion who shares their approach to life, but those wanting a
humanist wedding also have to have a separate civil marriage in order to be
legally married.
This causes additional expense and an administrative burden that
religious couples don’t have to face, but more than that, couples often
complain that the wedding ceremony they see as their ‘real’ marriage ceremony
is not the one recognised in law as when they become legally married.
In
England and Wales, the Marriage Act 2013 created a new category of legally
recognised marriage in England and Wales – ‘marriages according to the usages
of belief based organisations’. This category was created by the UK Parliament
so that the Government could enact legal recognition to humanist marriages by
secondary legislation. But in the many years since, the Government has still
not enacted this.
With over 1,000 couples a year already having humanist wedding
ceremonies that are not legally recognised, Humanists UK are
urging the UK Government to act swiftly and bring about legal recognition.
