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• The Divorce Reform Act 1969

  • introduced “no-fault” divorce
  • made divorce much easier, divorce could be filed simply on the grounds of “irretrievable breakdown”
• The Civil Partnership Act 2004

  • Introduced by the New Labour
  • gave same-sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as those in a civil marriage
  • civil partners are entitled to property rights, social security and pension benefits as married couples
• The Marriage Act 2013

  • introduced by the Conservative Party
  • allowed same-sex couples to enter marriage, turning civil partnerships into marriages
• Shared Parental Leave 2015

  • parents are given the right to share care of their child in the first year after birth
  • only mothers can take parental leave for the first 2 weeks after birth, after that, the parents are entitled to the flexible choice of how to divide up the remaining time