THE FACTS                                                                                              

The Civil Partnership Act came into effect on 5th December 2005 and applies to Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Civil Partnership Act does not require a ceremony to happen and it actually prevents any religious service from taking place during the registration process. 

If you do decide to have a ceremony, you should discuss what you want to say with the registrar. If the ceremony is being offered by the local authority, both parties need to agree the content. There is now a standard form of words available from the General Register Office and local registrars that you can use or adapt to your own needs, although the words themselves have no legal significance.

The Two Steps

There are two steps needed to register a civil Partnership. The first step being that you must give notice of your intention to register and the second is to actually register the civil partnership

Giving Notice

You and your partner will each need to give notice of your intention to register a civil partnership to the district registrar for the area where you wish to register your civil partnership. 

When you give notice, you will be asked to give details of the date and place where the civil partnership is to be registered. You will also have to give the register office certain personal details. These are your name, your address, and your date of birth and whether you have been in a civil partnership or married before.

When you give the notice to the district registrar, you must provide your birth certificate and the correct fee. If either you or your partner has been married or in a civil partnership before, you will need to produce the necessary documents to prove you are free to register a civil partnership.

Once you have given notice of your intention to register a civil partnership, details from the notice will be publicised in the register office for the area where you intend to register.

The details must be made available for people to see for 15 days before you can register your civil partnership. This is so as to give an opportunity for any objections to be made.

The details made available will not include your address, or that of your partner.

After 15 days, you will be free to register your partnership within the next three months. If you don't register your civil partnership within this period, you will not be able to register unless you start the whole process again.

In some exceptional circumstances, for example, where one of you is terminally ill, you can ask for the 15-day waiting period to be waived. The 15-day waiting period can also be waived in some circumstances where one of you has acquired a different gender

Registration

You can register your civil partnership in any register office in Scotland or at any venue you agree with the local registration authority.

Civil Partnerships in Scotland - What you would pay

With effect from January 2007, the fees set by the Registrar General by Act of Parliament are as follows:

For each person submitting a notice of Civil Partnership registration to the district registrar - £26

For Registration of a Civil Partnership - £47.50

For each extract of the entry in the Civil Partnership register - £8.50 ( applied for in the year of registration of the Civil Partnership )

Two people could thus give notice of Civil Partnership registration, have a civil partnership registered by a registrar in a registration office, and have one extract of the register entry ( their 'Civil Partnership ' certificate ) for the total statutory fees of  - £107.50

You can search for approved premises on the venues page. Remember and check the venue is available before registering your notice to register.

For more legal jargon on rights etc please visit Stonewalls site or enquires please contact us and let us get the ball rolling for you .