(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order amends the Civil Partnership Act 2004 for the purpose of assimilating provisions relating to the formation of civil partnerships to provisions relating to civil marriage in England and Wales.
The amendments relate to—
(a)the process for giving notice of an intended civil partnership, the evidence that may be called for at that time and the public display of information from that notice;
(b)the provisions that apply as regards giving notice where one of the parties is resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, is a member of the armed forces serving outside the UK or is subject to immigration control (in particular, the provisions are repealed in respect of Northern Ireland and narrowed in respect of the armed forces);
(c)where, and the hours during which, the civil partnership registration may take place and the effects (civil and criminal) of failure to comply with certain of those provisions: powers to create a process for the approval of premises for civil partnership registrations are established;
(d)matters relating to the formation of the civil partnership which will not need to be proved once the civil partnership is registered;
(e)the Registrar General’s obligation to make publicly available a list of all civil partnership registrars, which is repealed.
This Order has no impact on the costs of business, charities or voluntary bodies; neither does it have any significant financial impact on public bodies though there are set-up costs for the Registration Service in the region of £500,000. These costs were outlined in the full Regulatory Impact Assessment for the Civil Partnership Act 2004 which can be viewed at http://www.dti.gov.uk/access/ria/index.htm#equality.