The government has committed to introducing no-fault divorce, and outlined how this will work. The new regime will alter the whole divorce process as we know it, the purpose of which is to ‘reduce family conflict where divorce is inevitable’ and promote ‘amicable agreement.’
Until we hear further the current system will remain in place. This means that, for now, a spouse has to choose one of five reasons for the divorce when they apply. They have to ‘blame’ the other for their behaviour or their adultery, unless they have been separated for more than two years and agree to divorce, or have been separated for five years.
The new, no-fault, process will replace the five reasons with a simple statement that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. This statement can be made jointly or just by one person. It will no longer be possible to contest a divorce if one spouse does not agree to it. The prevailing evidence is that the ability to contest a divorce is very rarely used in practice and primarily used for arguing about the reasons given for divorce rather than about the state of the marriage. This leaves scope for abusive partners to extend their controlling behaviour.
There will be a minimum timeframe of six months, from petition stage to final divorce. The plans also involve modernising the vocabulary used and other factors which the government hopes will enable more people to complete the process themselves.
The response to the announcement has been overwhelmingly positive, being the result of years of campaigning. Fears have been expressed that it will make the divorce process so easy that married couples will now divorce where they otherwise would stay together. Statistics in countries operating a no-fault system do not support this. There tends to be an initial spike around the introduction of the legislation but no identified long-term increase in divorce rates.