I am in the process of divorcing my husband through the Courts in Spain. Can I include my husband's UK pension fund within the Spanish divorce proceedings?

The simple answer is in the majority of cases yes and, perhaps most importantly of all, it may be possible to bring such a claim even where a marriage has already been dissolved before the Spanish courts. The difficulty arises however that the Spanish Courts do not have jurisdiction over the UK, and any Spanish Order will not be directly enforceable in the UK. It will be necessary to bring parallel proceedings in the UK concurrent with the Spanish divorce or, where the divorce has already been finalised in Spain, commence new proceedings in the UK.

The legislation in the UK is the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 and was intended to give the divorce Courts more powers to deal with pensions in divorce. The principle is quite straightforward. The Welfare Reform and Pensions Act enables pensions to be split for the first time. Basically, the Courts can order a pension provider to split a pension so that both husband and wife have separate, independent pensions. The husband's pension fund (typically it is the husband although that does not have to be the case) is split so that there are now two separate pensions - one for the wife and one for the husband.

The Courts in the UK are well used to dealing with the issue of splitting a UK pension on divorce where proceedings have been issued outside of the UK. Each case will be different however and, as always, it is essential to take independent legal advice. Most importantly the division of the UK pension fund should be addressed within the Spanish proceedings.

Marc White LL.B. (English Solicitor) C/Diana 19, 2ºD, 03700 Dénia (located at the Glorieta Square end of Marques de Campo)

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