Civil Partnership
Civil partnership is a statutory creation for a registered partnership for same-sex couples in the UK, who were not allowed to marry. It is also open to opposite-sex couples since 31 December 2019. Civil partnership is almost identical to marriage and was often called “gay marriage”, but instead of opening up marriage to same-sex couples as other countries have done, the UK government spent vast amounts of tax payers’ money and of civil servants and parliamentary time to write a parallel law in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and subsequent secondary legislation. This “separate but equal” approach continued to stigmatise same-sex couples. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005 and many couples have registered since.
Civil partnership is purely defined through its registration process and does not (as marriage does) come with vows to commit for life, although many couples choose to say some similar words before they register as part of the ceremony.
Nor is there a duty to cohabit or a duty to have sex, both of which are at least implied in marriage. Since there is no definition of what the quality of the relationship of civil partners entails, the words “living as if they were civil partners”, which is used in English legislation in many places to describe cohabiting same-sex couples, is pretty meaningless.
This page has free information about:
How to register as Civil Partners?
Registration is very similar to getting married in England, with the following main differences:
- There is no religious ceremony. Since there is legislation against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the supply of goods and services, a hotel or other approved location cannot refuse civil partnership registrations if they allow marriages. No religious service can be carried out as part of a civil partnership registration. This does not mean that once the registration is finished, a service could not follow.
- When people get married in England they become husband and wife at the moment when the second of them says “I do” or a similar vow. At a civil partnership registration there are no prescribed vows or words and the partners become civil partners only when everyone has signed the civil partnership document. So should one partner die between the ceremony and the signing, they die a single person.
- For binational same-sex couples problems may arise because they can in many cases not get married or become civil partners in the foreign country and so only have the option of getting the foreign partner to the UK to register here. There is some more free information on the page about international aspects of civil partnership.
For details of how to register, please contact your local register office, which is part of your local council. You do not need to register where you live and you can also register in Scotland.
Remaining Discrimination
There may still be residual differences in relation to the benefits paid to surviving civil partners and same-sex spouses from state or private pension schemes. The UK basic state pension is complicated and the benefits are not entirely equal for same-sex and opposite-sex couples who are married or civil partners.
On the international level there are countries with same-sex marriage, those with partnership registration regimes identical or very similar to marriage, with lesser rights, or in most countries, none at all. Even if there is no domestic right to same-sex marriage, some countries, still recognise marriage from other countries. Bi-national couples, those moving abroad or any couple having any legal connection with another country could be disadvantaged by the fact that they are civil partners and not married couples. . So now there is equal marriage and therefore an option for either, they need to make a careful choice.
The rights arising out of civil partnership are not backdated. Couples who may have been together for years before 2005 could not register, some may have been bereaved then or have to struggle without a survivor’s pension, which they should have received if marriage had been available to them. This is illustrated in a case about the calculation of child maintenance by the child support agency that came to the House of Lords after the Civil Partnership Act 2004 but concerned the time before then. The lesbian woman in that case did not get the same rights she would have had if she had been in an opposite-sex relationship (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v M [2006] UKHL 11).
Andrea Woelke is an expert on civil partnership and has written the leading textbook on the topic.
For advice on your specific circumstances contact Andrea Woelke who works as a consultant solicitor at Josiah-Lake Gardiner Solicitors: ring Andrea on 020 3633 0338 (+44 20 3633 0338 from abroad) or him (stating your full name, the full name of the other person in your case and your telephone number on which we can call you).
Please note that Josiah-Lake Gardiner Solicitors do not have a contract to take on cases on legal aid. To check if you may be able to get legal aid please go to this government website and contact a solicitor who has a legal aid contract.
15 February 2024 by Andrea Woelke