I recently wrote about the benefit chaos with the new computer system handling the Government’s flagship Universal Credit Scheme, and how it is not able to cope with the “complicated” lives led by millions of families. Going to add further to this confusion, with the redefinition of marriage. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) had proposed merging official figures for same-sex marriage and traditional marriage together with “no differentiation possible”. The move would have airbrushed true marriage from official data.

But, after consulting with the public, “asking” whether it was “important” that “some tables” should show separate heterosexual and homosexual marriage figures, ONS have now released a statement saying they are not going to combine the figures. So the statistics for traditional marriage are not to be a state secret. Also the ONS “will publish marriage and divorce statistics in the future where figures for opposite-sex and same-sex couples are shown separately”. This is a welcome climb down, thanks to the huge response from the public consultation, for upholding real marriage in our society.

Norman Plaisted Vivian Road Newport