The Civil Partnership Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations made under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 make provision for the various forms and particulars to be prescribed in connection with the preliminaries to, and the registering of civil partnerships. They also include procedures required for the approval of places by a local registration authority (“an authority”) for civil partnership registration other than at the Registrar’s Office.

In particular the regulations set out—

(1) the form required for giving notice of a proposed civil partnership (“a civil partnership notice”) and the requirement for giving 14 days notice (regulation 3) and the giving of notice in person (regulation 4);

(2) the particulars to be taken from each civil partnership notice and kept by the registrar (regulation 5);

(3) the form of civil partnership schedule (regulation 6);

(4) the parties who may apply for approval of a place for the registration of a civil partnership and the application procedures which those parties must follow for the different types of approval (regulations 7, 8 and 9);

(5) the requirements for public notice of applications and third party objection procedure (regulations 10 and 11);

(6) the considerations to be taken into account by an authority in determining an application (regulation 12);

(7) the procedure for attaching standard conditions to a place approval (as set out in Schedule 3 to the Regulations) and non-standard conditions to either place or temporary place approvals (regulation 13), the notification of decisions (regulation 14), and a restriction on successive applications (regulation 15);

(8) the duration of approvals (regulation 16) and the procedure for renewal (regulation 17);

(9) the determination and charging of fees by an authority for the approval of places and renewal of approvals (regulation 18) and in respect of the attendance by registrars at approved places (regulation 19);

(10) the grounds and procedures for revocation, suspension and variation of an approval (regulations 20 and 21);

(11) the procedures for review of any decision by an authority under these regulations (regulation 22);

(12) the grounds and procedures for appeal to the county court (regulation 23);

(13) the deeming of a person who takes over the interest in a place approval as the approval holder (regulation 24);

(14) the requirements for the keeping of registers of approved places (regulation 25);

(15) the duty on the Registrar General to issue supplementary guidance (regulation 26);

(16) the form of medical statement required where by reason of serious illness or disability a civil partnership registration is to take place at home or in hospital (regulation 27);

(17) the form of consents required for persons over 16 years of age but under 18 years of age (regulation 28) and the particulars to be taken from each consent or court order (regulation 29);

(18) the provision for correcting errors and the form of the statutory declaration to be completed (regulation 30);

(19) the form of statement by a responsible authority where either party is detained in prison or hospital (regulation31);

(20) the form of a certified copy of an entry in the civil partnership registration records in the custody of the registrar and the Registrar General (regulation 32); and

(21) the extract from the civil partnership registration records to be issued for certain statutory provisions and the list of these provisions (regulation 33).