After the Civil Partnerships Act 2004 took effect on December 5, 2005, the first civil partnerships were created on December 21. However, as of December 5, 2005, civil unions formed in other countries by people of the same sex were considered legally binding. Although the legal procedures differ from marriage, the practical effects are the same, including the same paternity and child-rearing rights for both parents.
Death, formal dissolution, or annulment are the only ways to end a civil relationship, and much like in a marriage, dissolution is only possible in the event of an irretrievable breakdown. One key distinction between civil unions and marriages is that adultery is not a cause for an irrevocable end to a civil union. With the first civil partnership dissolutions already occurring, it is clear that the courts are taking the same approach to dissolutions of civil partnerships as they do in the breakdowns of marriages. This includes the normal claims for financial relief, such as the division of assets and maintenance payments.
It is important for civil partners to make a will and arrange for inheritance tax in the same way that married couples do since civil partners have the same rights as spouses upon the death of their civil partner. Like marriage, entering into a civil partnership revokes any previous will.
More recently, the government of England and Wales stated that religious institutions would be permitted to host civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples.
In 2012, a civil partnership with “high net worth” was dissolved for the first time. A civil partnership dissolution follows the same asset distribution rules as a marriage dissolution, as affirmed by the court’s judgement.
The Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 became law in July 2013. This addresses some of the irregularities that arise from same-sex marriages and effectively puts them on par with heterosexual marriages.
Other significant legal matters addressed by the Act include:
English and Welsh law will now accept same-sex marriages that took place in other countries before the Act was passed.
Nothing in this Act shall affect the impact of any ‘private instrument’ in existence immediately prior to its effective date. For this reason, same-sex couples would be excluded from the definition of spouse’ in an existing trust that only includes children and spouses.
• The common-law assumption that a child born to a married woman is also the child of her spouse does not apply in cases where both parents are women.
It also allows civil unions to be legally recognised as same-sex weddings. However, a 2017 court judgement made it clear that heterosexual couples cannot use civil partnerships to legally recognise their union.
In cases where a ‘private instrument’ (such as a trust document) was written before the Act was passed, the term ‘spouse’ will not include a same-sex spouse due to the non-equivalence rule. However, it has been established that when a civil partnership is converted into a marriage, both couples’ wills remain in effect.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that spouses of the same gender are entitled to the same occupational pension benefits for dependents as their heterosexual counterparts. In the case of pension benefits earned before the Civil Partnerships Act was enacted, the entitlement was previously capped due to judicial precedent.
The Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of a heterosexual couple’s human rights when they were unsuccessful in their attempt to have a heterosexual civil partnership, and it ordered the Secretary of State to issue regulations by the end of 2019 to allow heterosexual couples to become civil partners.
