Family Law and Civil Partnership Act
As of the 5th December 2005 the UK joined the civilised world in so far as same sex marriages are concerned. The Civil Partnership Act came into force and allows same sex couples to register their relationship and thereby place the relationship on a very similar footing to a marriage.
For example the partners will have the same rights as a spouse with regard to pensions, intestacy and tax. If the relationship breaks down the court will have the same powers to consider the financial settlement which means that partners will have legal financial obligations which outlive the relationship.
So how does one go about registering a relationship? The procedural requirements of registering a Civil Partnership are very similar to a civil marriage service in a register office. Both parties have to be 18 years or over unless they have written permission from their parents, they have to be the same sex, which means that if one or both are transgender or transsexual decisions have to be made whether a Gender Recognition Certificate is being or will be sought as the relevant sex for the purposes of the Civil Registration will be that which is registered on the Birth Certificate, and they have to have been living within a Registration District for at least 7 days prior to the registration.
Notice is required to be given 15 days before the registration which mirrors the ‘Banns’ of a tradition wedding. Therefore the first date on which a Civil Registration can take place is 21st December 2005.
This notice must be given in the Registration district where each party lives and where the Registration is to take place. Potentially notice may need to be given in three Districts or only in one.
Notice must be given in person and the parties must provide evidence of their name, age, address, condition(eg provide decree absolute if divorced) and nationality. Presumably they will need to arrange an appointment in advance with the registrar in the same way as if they were arranging a civil marriage. The Notice may be given in English or bilingually in English and Welsh. If the notice is to be given in Welsh the Registrar must be Welsh speaking. Every Welsh Registration
District is obliged to provide at least one Welsh Speaking Registrar.
The Registration can take place either at the register office or at any other place which is approved for registration. This is the same as the current regulations with regard to civil marriages. The Registration can be accompanied by a ceremony but need not do so. Such a ceremony cannot be religious as the Act precludes any religious elements to the Registration.
As with a marriage the Registration has to be witnessed by 2 witnesses who both sign the Register along with the parties. Again in the same way as with a civil wedding and entry is made in a register and copies of the entry are provided to the parties after the Registration and will be their equivalent to a Marriage Certificate. This certificate can be a full certificate or an extract which does not contain the addresses.
There is a fee of £20 for giving notice and £40 for the actual registration. There may be further fees if the parties choose to celebrate the registration anywhere other that the register office.
Once the Civil Registration has taken place it can only be ended by a formal dissolution. A dissolution must be applied to the Court for an follows the procedure for Divorce except, interestingly that the grounds for Dissolution do not include Adultery.
The more cynical among us wonder how long, after 21 December 2005 the first applications for dissolution will be made. The even more cynical wonder whether the government will have got
their act together and sorted out the procedure, forms etc by then. I notice that the Court Web Site do not contain any forms relating to Civil Partnerships yet.
It would seem that in drafting the Civil Registration Act all that has happened is that ‘chunks’ of the Matrimonial Causes act have simply been grafted on wholesale with very little thought.. Whilst
some might say that this is only fair as it provides equality others might comment that this might have been an opportunity to give the matter some serious thought in order to create a better system
which might then, in its turn, influence the Divorce procedures.
We as solicitors, I suppose should not be complaining as it open up a whole new area of revenue without having to learn any new regulations or procedure. Oh dear there goes that cynic again.
