HL Deb 04 March 1982 vol 427 cc1381-3

3.46 p.m.

Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The object of this Bill is to enable Hugh Small and Norma Small to be married although they are in the position of stepson and stepmother. I must, therefore, point out that there is an inaccuracy in the report from the Personal Bills Committee in its penultimate paragraph, where it says that Hugh Small and Norma Small are in the relationship of stepfather and stepdaughter. The relationship is stepson and stepmother.

I commend this Bill to your Lordships. It is a most deserving case. There are no ties of blood and I am sure that your Lordships will give it full sympathy and full support. The facts are quite simple. The stepson, Hugh Small, is 39 years of age; the stepmother, Norma Small, is also 39 years of age, perhaps a month older. Hugh Small's father was a consultant surgeon at Barnet Hospital. He died a year ago at the age of 72, leaving Norma Small as his widow. He had married Norma in 1967, when he was 58 years of age and she was a young spinster aged 24, thus 34 years younger than her doctor husband. In spite of that disparity of age, it was a very happy marriage and there are two daughters of that marriage, now aged 11 and 13.

At the time of the marriage Hugh Small, who became Norma's stepson on that marriage, was away from the family home. Indeed, throughout most of the period of his father's marriage to Norma he was working abroad. He is a computer consultant. When his father, Norma's husband, died suddenly in January 1981 he was working abroad, and the circumstance which brought them together was the fact that they found that both of them were executors of the deceased's will—they were joint executors of that will. That was how their lives then became intertwined. Hugh, the stepson, returned to the United Kingdom. He and the widow, Norma, were drawn together by their common loss. They do not live together and have not lived together. Norma, the widow, has received the bulk of her doctor husband's estate under his will. On the other hand, if it is material, Hugh, the stepson, has a substantial income as a computer consultant. Neither Hugh nor Norma wish to live together as man and wife unless they can be legally married with the permission and authority of this House.

This Petition that they have presented to your Lordships has the support of two friends of the family. I feel I should draw your attention to parts of the evidence that was given before the Personal Bills Committee. One is a letter from Dr. J. W. Thomas, a Bachelor of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. He was the general medical practitioner of the deceased father of Hugh, and he was also a close friend of the family.

I need not read all the details. He deposes as to the happiness of the marriage of Norma and her elderly doctor husband, and also the affection that has grown up by the two daughters for Hugh whom Norma wishes to marry. I think it is relevant that I should, in the circumstances of this case, quote a few lines from the letter: It has also become apparent that Norma and Hugh Small have fallen in love and they would like to solemnise their feelings by marriage. However because of the legal situation in this country this is not possible without an Act of Parliament. Knowing the family background and looking to the future I think this marriage, if it could take place, would help to keep the Small family intact and to give the two daughters, Penny and Samantha, a firm base again which they lost when their father died". There is also a supporting letter from Mrs. Rosemary Pope, who was a nurse at Barnet Hospital and who is the godparent of one of Norma's daughters. Again I do not think it is necessary to go through the details of this long letter but merely to quote briefly from the last paragraph, where Mrs. Pope says: The relationship between Hugh and Norma has developed over the last few months from one of mutual support to a deeper, more caring, love, with the realisation that if they could marry it would benefit all concerned, especially the children, and I personally feel that that is what Alan, under the circumstances, would have wanted". In conclusion, I should like to summarise the position in this way. Technically Hugh is the stepson of Norma, but at no time has she ever stood in loco parenthis to Hugh. They are mature adults of equal age, and I submit that there is no ethical, moral, religious or social objection to a marriage between them. It is clear from the evidence that has been put to me and the papers that have been put to the Personal Bills Committee that such a marriage would be for their common good and also for that of Norma's two daughters. The impediment to such a marriage caused by the technical relationship which exists between them serves, in my submission, no useful purpose of public policy and is a cause of real hardship to them. My Lords, I beg to move.

Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time.—(Lord Lloyd of Kilgerran.)

On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to an Unopposed Bill Committee.

The Lord Bishop of London

My Lords, on this Bill I wish to make only some brief comments.

Several noble Lords

Order!

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone)

My Lords, there is no Question before the House. I do not know what the Front Bench thinks, but there is no Question before the House. If the right reverend Prelate wishes to make a personal statement, this is not the time.