Last updated on February 27th, 2018 at 03:28 pm

 

Current law allows a person to petition for divorce on the ground of irretrievable breakdown of the relationship.  This can be proved by one of 5 reasons, which are:

• adultery
• unreasonable behaviour
• 2-year separation
• 5-year separation
• desertion

No fault divorce not currently available

Getting a divorce using adultery or unreasonable behaviour as the reason can be much quicker that using the other reasons, but one person has to petition for divorce indicating that the other is at fault. The report says that this using these reasons can lead to unnecessary conflict and an ‘inherently unfair system’ along with increased parental conflict, which has a negative impact on children.

According to the report, in 2015, 60% of divorces were granted on reasons of adultery or unreasonable behaviour in England and Wales, whereas in Scotland, where a divorce can be granted after 1 year if both parties agree, the figure as 6%.  This is despite a national opinion survey indicating that 43% of people who were identified as being at fault disagreed with the reasons given for the breakdown of their marriage.

The report also looks back to historical data which shows that the courts have reduced expectations in the need to prove unreasonable behaviour and that, whilst in 1980 64% of unreasonable behaviour petitions were based on physical violence, this has now fallen to 15%.

Scottish system not advocated in England and Wales

Whilst the report highlights the difference between figures in England and Wales, and Scotland, researches don’t advocate adopting the Scottish system, partly because getting a divorce based on adultery or unreasonable behaviour would still be quicker than the one year needed in Scotland and may not reduce the incentive to cite adultery or unreasonable behaviour, and partly because major changes to family law in England and Wales would also be necessary to replicate that in Scotland.

Researchers for the report recommend that ‘fault’ should be removed from divorce and be replaced with a system whereby one or both of the partners report that the marriage has broken down irretrievably and this is confirmed by one of the partners after a minimum of 6 months.

You can read the full Nuffield report here. You can find out more about the grounds for divorce on our website.