142.This section amends various provisions of the Children Act 1989 (“the 1989 Act”) to put civil partners on the same footing as married couples.
143.Subsection (2) amends section 4A(1) of the 1989 Act to enable a civil partner to acquire parental responsibility of his or her civil partner’s child in the same way as a person who is married to the parent of the child (but is not that child’s parent).
144.Subsection (3) amends the definition of “child of the family” in section 105(1) of the 1989 Act to include a child of both civil partners and any other child who has been treated as a child of the family by both civil partners, unless the child had been placed with the civil partners by a local authority or a voluntary organisation as foster parents.
145.Subsection (4) amends the definition of “relative” in section 105 (1) of the 1989 Act to replace “by affinity” with “by marriage or civil partnership”.