The Gender Recognition (Marriage and Civil Partnership Registration) (Modification) (Scotland) Order 2016

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order modifies the operation of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 (“the 1965 Act”) in relation to qualifying Scottish marriages registered under regulation 8 of the Gender Recognition (Marriage and Civil Partnership) (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (the “2016 Regulations”) to ensure that the information on the register of marriages does not identify a party or both parties as having obtained gender recognition certificates.

The operation of the 1965 Act is modified so that the reference to the existing entry in the alphabetical index of the entries in the register of marriages will be removed by the Registrar General (article 3(2)). Article 3(3) makes similar provision in relation to the alphabetical index district registrars have access to under section 39C of the 1965 Act.

Article 3(4) also provides that extracts of the existing entry in the register of marriages may only be issued to the parties to the marriage, under sections 37(1), 38(2)(b) and 39D(1)(b) of the 1965 Act.

Article 3(5) to (7) provide that the Registrar General must make traceable the connection between the existing entry and the new entry but this information must not be open to public inspection or search. Only a court or the parties to the marriage may have access to this information.

Finally article 3(9) modifies the operation of section 41A of the 1965 Act. Where the date of marriage on the new entry is not the same as on the existing entry, by virtue of the 2016 Regulations, any extract of the new entry will not be sufficient evidence of the date of marriage for the purposes of section 41A.

Article 4 makes equivalent modifications are made to the operation of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 with regard to the civil partnership register where a new entry is made under the 2016 Regulations to register a civil partnership following the issue of a full gender recognition certificate to each of the parties to the civil partnership.