Commentary on Sections Part 4: Marriage and Civil Partnership Chapter 1: Referral and Investigation of Proposed Marriages and Civil Partnerships Section 50: Conduct of investigation
232.Subsection (1) requires that any investigation of whether a proposed marriage or civil partnership is a sham must be conducted in accordance with any regulations made by the Secretary of State for that purpose.
233.Subsection (2) requires that in any investigation of whether a proposed marriage or civil partnership is a sham, regard must be had to any guidance published by the Secretary of State for that purpose.
234.Subsection (3) provides that, where the Secretary of State decides to investigate whether a proposed marriage or civil partnership is a sham, the relevant parties are required to comply with any requirements specified in regulations if notified by the Secretary of State that they must do so.
235.Subsection (4) provides that the Secretary of State must decide as part of the investigation whether both of the parties to the proposed marriage or civil partnership have complied with the investigation (“the compliance question”).
236.Subsection (5) provides that the compliance question is to be decided in accordance with any regulations made by the Secretary of State for that purpose. The first regulations made under this subsection and subsection (1) are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure (see section 74(2)).
237.Subsection (6) provides that the compliance question is to be decided with regard to any guidance published by the Secretary of State for that purpose.
238.Subsection (7) requires the Secretary of State to decide the compliance question and give notice of the decision to both parties to the proposed marriage or civil partnership, and to the superintendent registrar or the registration authority who referred it to the Secretary of State, and if different, the registration authority responsible for issuing the civil partnership schedule, within a 70 day period.
239.Subsection (8) requires the Secretary of State to give reasons for reaching a decision that one or both of the relevant parties to the proposed marriage or civil partnership have not complied with the investigation.
240.Subsection (9) provides that regulations made under this section may in particular deal with: (a) the circumstances in which a relevant party, as defined in subsection (11), is to be taken to have failed to comply with a relevant requirement, as also defined in subsection (11); and (b) the consequences of a relevant party’s failure to comply with a relevant requirement.
241.Subsection (10) allows the compliance question to be decided by reference to a relevant party’s compliance with one or more relevant requirements.
242.Subsection (11) defines particular terms used in this section.