Same sex parent legislation to be lodged

14 October 2022

​The Assistant Minister for Children and Education, Deputy Louise Doublet, has confirmed that legislation to secure the rights of all parents is proceeding at pace and will be lodged by the end of this year.

The legislation will update the Children (Jersey) Law 2002 and Marriage and Civil Status (Jersey) Law 2001 to remove the inequalities that exist within the law, and reflect family structures in Jersey.

If approved by the States Assembly, the legislation will:

• Allow same-sex parents to both be named on a Jersey birth certificate
• Automatically offer parental responsibility to both same-sex parents
• Give mixed-sex civil partners legal parent status and parental responsibility in the same way as a married couple
• Provide the ability to recognise parents whose child is born to a surrogate mother as legal parents of that child
• Recognise children born to parents in a civil partnership as legitimate

Over the summer, stakeholders, legal experts and Law Officers provided feedback on the draft legislation to ensure that it was subject to high levels of professional scrutiny, and confirm that the draft legislation is fit for purpose.

Assistant Minister for Children and Education, Deputy Louise Doublet, said: “For several years I’ve advocated for the rights of same-sex parents, and I’m pleased to see that we’re now within touching distance of enshrining those rights in law. 

“Our laws reflect the society they were drafted in, which means that updating the law to reflect families today is a complex process. Officers are amending 32 separate pieces of legislation, and responding to the 60 comments we’ve received as part of the consultation process. 

“To those families who are affected, I’d like to reassure them that this work remains a very high priority for me and we will continue to work extremely hard over the next 8 weeks to meet our lodging deadline. It is my intention that the draft Law will come into force within the next 12 months, so we will have Laws that reflect and serve the full diversity of our Island’s families."