Civil Partnership Act 2004

149 Detained persons

(1) If—

(a) one of the parties to a proposed civil partnership is detained in a prison or as a patient in a hospital, and

(b) the civil partnership is to be registered in that prison or hospital,

the civil partnership notice given by that party must be accompanied by a statement to which subsection (2) applies.

(2) This subsection applies to a statement which—

(a) is made in the prescribed form by the responsible authority not more than 21 days before the date on which the civil partnership notice is given,

(b) identifies the establishment where the person is detained, and

(c) states that the responsible authority has no objection to that establishment being the place of registration for that civil partnership.

(3) In subsection (2) “responsible authority” means—

(a) if the person named in the statement is detained in a prison, the governor or other officer in charge of that prison;

(b) if the person named in the statement is detained in a hospital or special accommodation, the Health and Social Services Board administering that hospital or the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, respectively;

(c) if the person named in the statement is detained in a private hospital, the person in charge of that hospital.

(4) After the registrar receives a civil partnership notice accompanied by a statement to which subsection (2) applies, he must notify the Registrar General and not complete a civil partnership schedule unless the Registrar General directs him to proceed under section 143.

(5) In this section—

(a) “prison” includes a remand centre and a young offenders centre, and

(b) “hospital”, “patient”, “private hospital” and “special accommodation” have the same meaning as in the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 (S.I. 1986/595 (N.I. 4)).