The Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee today listed suggestions it had received for a new law to regulate cohabitation, although it said that the public's response to its call for suggestions had not been high.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that the government is drafting a law on cohabitation.

The committee said that it had been proposed that:

A central office be set up to register partners cohabiting in the same residence. The registration would be known as civil union;

The registered persons would enjoy the same status as married couples in areas such as tax and would not be considered as living separately;

Cohabiting couples would be given the right to inheritance from their partners. In this way, long separated wives or husbands would not be entitled to the inheritance, years after separation;

Cohabiting partners should also be eligible for a widow's pension once either of them passes away. Widows and widowers of separated spouses would no longer have the right for such a pension once the estranged wife/husband, would have former a registered civil union;

There also needs to be mechanism within the Family Court to regulate separated couples who would have entered into new civil unions, particularly in areas such as the separation of assets;

An authority would also be needed to decide on the custody of children born during cohabitation, if that union unravels.

The committee said it would receive further suggestions until May 31 at socialaffairs.parliament@gov.mt