(2) whether his Department has made any assessment of the impact of pre-nuptial agreements on (a) low income and (b) vulnerable individuals.
Couples are free to make pre-nuptial agreements and apply them in the event of relationship breakdown. In those circumstances the courts will only intervene in their financial affairs if one party wishes to dispute that agreement. Even if the parties dispute it, an agreement is a factor taken into account in any ancillary relief proceedings relating to the couple who made the agreement.
The welfare of any child is the court's first consideration when resolving a couple's financial affairs. Enforcement of prenuptial contracts regardless of their content would displace that principle. An agreement which is very old, or one which does not deal with the couple's current circumstances, or on which the parties had not taken independent legal advice, could be unfair. The agreement might not have considered changes in circumstances, such as the illness of one of the parties, or the birth of children, which would change the parties' earning capacity.
This Ministry has not received any representations from the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford on this issue to date.
The Ministry has not undertaken research on the impact of pre-nuptial agreements on parties with low incomes and vulnerable individuals. However, we believe that pre-nuptial agreements are most often used by wealthier couples. We think that pre-nuptial agreements could never fully oust the jurisdiction of the court without putting vulnerable parties and children at risk.