Government maintains two-year cohabitation necessary for bereavement award

Article summary

The government has shared its response to the twenty-first report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) on the draft Remedial Order to amend section 1A of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (FAA 1976). The Remedial Order intends to add cohabiting partners of a deceased as a new category of claimants eligible for bereavement damages. In their representations, APIL expressed concerns about the imposition of a two-year cohabitation period for cohabiting partners to qualify for awards of bereavement damages, which is not imposed on married or civilly partnership couples. In addition, they argued for a more general reform to bereavement damages, stating they should reflect the Scottish approach. In its response, the government maintained that the two-year timeframe for cohabiting couples is reasonable and that it does not consider launching a wider consultation on the bereavement damages regime. However, it considers that adjusting the level of the bereavement damages award is appropriate in...