By Sophia Gonella, Pupil Barrister at Queen Elizabeth Building
Introduction
The promise of cohabitation reform has, once again, been thwarted by the government. On 1 November 2022, it published its response to the Women and Equalities Committee Rights of Cohabiting Partners Inquiry Report,[1] in which it rejected most of the key recommendations of the report, frustrating any attempts to provide statutory legal protection to cohabiting couples. In an unpersuasive response, the government proffered a hazy explanation for its approach, which largely sidestepped the issues and emphasised that existing work on the law of marriage and divorce must conclude before it would consider cohabitation reform. The response itself reveals an inherent unease with reform in this area, despite the measured p...