Review of Civil Partnership

Overview

During the Parliamentary passage of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014, the Scottish Government said that we would carry out a review of civil partnership in Scotland.

This consultation is part of that review and enables civic society across Scotland to contribute to the discussion.The three options are no change, so that civil partnership would remain available for same sex couples only; stopping new civil partnerships being registered at some date in the future; or introducing opposite sex civil partnership in Scotland.

As outlined in this consultation, the Government has considered opposite sex civil partnership. The Government is not persuaded that opposite sex civil partnership should be introduced in Scotland, although this consultation invites views on this position.

As the consultation indicates, the Government is of the view that demand would be low; there would be costs; and opposite sex couples seeking to enter into a registered relationship have the option of marrying.The Government does not have a view at this stage on which of the other two options should be followed.

The Government has already made it clear that those in existing civil partnerships will be able to remain in their civil partnerships if they wish and that these will continue to be recognised by the Scottish Government. There is no obligation on couples to change their civil partnerships to marriage if they do not wish to do so. That remains the position. This consultation is not a referendum nor a quantitative exercise.

The Government wishes to obtain factual information to help inform future policy in this area. Due to legislative timescales, any Bill in the Scottish Parliament would be for the next Session of Parliament.

Why your views matter

This consultation is part of the Scottish Government’s review of civil partnership. Its purpose is to help identify any arguments for or against each of the different options that we have not identified in this consultation paper. The consultation is not an opinion poll and the Government does not intend to analyse or report on the numbers supporting each option.