The Christian institute
Section:
Headings:
Facts
The five basic grounds for divorce are the same throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland1:
- Adultery
- Unreasonable behaviour
- Desertion
- The parties to the marriage have lived apart for at least two years and both consent to the divorce
- The parties have lived apart for at least five years
- The first three grounds are ‘faults’ that can be committed by one spouse against the other, allowing the ‘innocent’ spouse to apply for a divorce. Grounds 4 and 5 are ‘no-fault’ grounds requiring evidence of separation.
- Divorce was only legalised in 1857. Prior to that an Act of Parliament was needed to obtain a divorce. The 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act permitted divorce for the innocent party where their spouse had committed adultery.2 The grounds for divorce were widened in 1937 to include desertion, cruelty and incurable insanity.3
- The 1969 Divorce Reform Act restated the three existing fault grounds of adultery, desertion and cruelty (widened to ‘unreasonable behaviour’) and added the two ‘no-fault’ separation grounds. Scotland and Northern Ireland subsequently adopted the same five grounds.
- The so-called ‘special procedure’ introduced in England and Wales in 1973 means a divorce can be conducted by post. In Northern Ireland the divorce rate is only a quarter of that in England and Wales. There must be a proper hearing before a judge where the reasons are explained. There is no special procedure where divorce is obtainable by post.
- The Family Law (Scotland) Act 2005 dramatically reduces the amount of time required for a divorce on the grounds of separation in Scotland. The five year period where one party does not consent has been reduced to two years. Where both parties consent the time period has been reduced from two years to one. The Act also abolishes desertion as a ground for divorce; though adultery and unreasonable behaviour remain.
Key Statistics
- In 2003 there were 166,700 divorces in the United Kingdom. In 2003 the percentage of married couples divorcing per year in England and Wales was 1.4%. In Scotland it was 1.0%.4
- More than half of divorces in England and Wales involve children under 16. In 2003, 55% of divorces involved one or more children under 16.5In 1997 it was calculated that more than one in four children will see their parents divorce before they are aged sixteen.6
- In 2001 11.5% of children lived in households headed by a divorced or separated parent (see table below). It still needs to be remembered that over 70% of children lived in a household headed by a married couple.
% of dependant children living in households by household type7
| |
70.7
| Married couple |
6.5
| Divorced parent |
5.0
| Separated parent |
9.5
| Cohabiting |
7.2
| Single parent, never married |
1.2
| Widowed |
