The future of civil partnership in Scotland

Overview

The consultation sets out two options for the future of civil partnership in Scotland. The first involves closure of civil partnership to new relationships from a specific date in the future. The second involves making civil partnership available to opposite sex couples.

Why your views matter

The UK Supreme Court has made a declaration that the Civil Partnership Act 2004 is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to the extent that it does not permit an opposite sex couple to enter into a civil partnership. The Scottish Ministers must not act in a way that contravenes Convention Rights, and civil status is a devolved matter. We are consulting in order to obtain views on two options for changing the law of civil partnership. Either option would be effective in removing the current discrimination from the law.

Download the consultation paper.

What happens next

Our consultation closed on 21 December 2018.  We received 481 responses. 

Following careful consideration of the points made by consultees, the Scottish Government has decided to remove the ECHR incompatibility from Scots law by making civil partnership available to all couples in Scotland. 

We will do this by introducing a Bill to the Scottish Parliament in autumn 2019.  This will ensure that same sex and mixed sex couples have the same choices of civil partnership or marriage.