(1) For the purposes of section 1, two people are to be regarded as having registered as civil partners of each other once each of them has signed the civil partnership schedule, in the presence of—
(a) each other,
(b) two witnesses both of whom have attained the age of 16, and
(c) the authorised registrar,
(all being present at a registration office or at a place agreed under section 93).
(2) But the two people must be eligible to be so registered.
(3) Subsection (1) applies regardless of whether subsection (4) is complied with.
(4) After the civil partnership schedule has been signed under subsection (1), it must also be signed, in the presence of the civil partners and each other by—
(a) each of the two witnesses, and
(b) the authorised registrar.
(1) Two people are not eligible to register in Scotland as civil partners of each other if—
(a) they are not of the same sex,
(b) they are related in a forbidden degree,
(c) either has not attained the age of 16,
(d) either is married or already in civil partnership, or
(e) either is incapable of—
(i) understanding the nature of civil partnership, or
(ii) validly consenting to its formation.
(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), a man is related in a forbidden degree to another man if related to him in a degree specified in column 1 of Schedule 10 and a woman is related in a forbidden degree to another woman if related to her in a degree specified in column 2 of that Schedule.
(3) A man and any man related to him in a degree specified in column 1 of paragraph 2 of Schedule 10, or a woman and any woman related to her in a degree specified in column 2 of that paragraph, are not related in a forbidden degree if—
(a) both persons have attained the age of 21, and
(b) the younger has not at any time before attaining the age of 18 lived in the same household as the elder and been treated by the elder as a child of the elder’s family.
(4) A man and any man related to him in a degree specified in column 1 of paragraph 3 of Schedule 10, or a woman and any woman related to her in a degree specified in column 2 of that paragraph, are not related in a forbidden degree if—
(a) both persons have attained the age of 21, and
(b) in the case of—
(i) a man entering civil partnership with the father of his former wife, both the former wife and the former wife’s mother are dead,
(ii) a man entering civil partnership with the father of his former civil partner, both the former civil partner and the former civil partner’s mother are dead,
(iii) a man entering civil partnership with the former husband of his daughter, both the daughter and the daughter’s mother are dead,
(iv) a man entering civil partnership with the former civil partner of his son, both the son and the son’s mother are dead,
(v) a woman entering civil partnership with the mother of her former husband, both the former husband and the former husband’s father are dead,
(vi) a woman entering civil partnership with the mother of her former civil partner, both the former civil partner and the former civil partner’s father are dead,
(vii) a woman entering civil partnership with the former wife of her son, both the son and the son’s father are dead, or
(viii) a woman entering civil partnership with the former civil partner of her daughter, both the daughter and the daughter’s father are dead.
(5) Subsection (4) and paragraphs 2 and 3 of Schedule 10 have effect subject to the modifications specified in subsections (6) and (7) in the case of a person (here the “relevant person”) whose gender has become the acquired gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7).
(6) Any reference in subsection (4) or those paragraphs to a former wife or former husband of the relevant person includes (respectively) any former husband or former wife of the relevant person.
(7) And the reference—
(a) in sub-paragraph (iii) of subsection (4)(b) to the relevant person’s daughter’s mother is to the relevant person’s daughter’s father if the relevant person is the daughter’s mother,
(b) in sub-paragraph (iv) of that subsection to the relevant person’s son’s mother is to the relevant person’s son’s father if the relevant person is the son’s mother,
(c) in sub-paragraph (vii) of that subsection to the relevant person’s son’s father is to the relevant person’s son’s mother if the relevant person is the son’s father, and
(d) in sub-paragraph (viii) of that subsection to the relevant person’s daughter’s father is to the relevant person’s daughter’s mother if the relevant person is the daughter’s father.
(8) References in this section and in Schedule 10 to relationships and degrees of relationship are to be construed in accordance with section 1(1) of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 (c. 9).
(9) For the purposes of this section, a degree of relationship specified in paragraph 1 of Schedule 10 exists whether it is of the full blood or the half blood.
(10) Amend section 41(1) of the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978 (c. 28) (application to determination of forbidden degrees of provisions of that Act relating to the status conferred by adoption) as follows—
(a) after first “marriage” insert “, to the eligibility of persons to register as civil partners of each other”, and
(b) for “and incest” substitute “, to such eligibility and to incest”.
For the purpose of affording reasonable facilities throughout Scotland for registration as civil partners, the Registrar General—
(a) is to appoint such number of district registrars as he thinks necessary, and
(b) may, in respect of any district for which he has made an appointment under paragraph (a), appoint one or more assistant registrars,
as persons who may carry out such registration (in this Part referred to as “authorised registrars”).
(1) In order to register as civil partners, each of the intended civil partners must submit to the district registrar a notice, in the prescribed form and accompanied by the prescribed fee, of intention to enter civil partnership (in this Part referred to as a “notice of proposed civil partnership”).
(2) A notice submitted under subsection (1) must also be accompanied by—
(a) the birth certificate of the person submitting it,
(b) if that person has previously been married or in civil partnership and—
(i) the marriage or civil partnership has been dissolved, a copy of the decree of divorce or dissolution, or
(ii) the other party to that marriage or civil partnership has died, the death certificate of that other party, and
(c) if that person has previously ostensibly been married or in civil partnership but decree of annulment has been obtained, a copy of that decree.
(3) If a person is unable to submit a certificate or decree required by subsection (2) he may instead make a declaration to that effect, stating what the reasons are; and he must provide the district registrar with such—
(a) information in respect of the matters to which the certificate or document would have related, and
(b) documentary evidence in support of that information,
as the district registrar may require.
(4) If a document submitted under subsection (2) or (3) is in a language other than English, the person submitting it must attach to the document a translation of it in English, certified by the translator as a correct translation.
(5) A person submitting a notice under subsection (1) must make and sign the necessary declaration (the form for which must be included in any form prescribed for the notice).
(6) The necessary declaration is a declaration that the person submitting the notice believes that the intended civil partners are eligible to be in civil partnership with each other.
(1) On receipt of a notice of proposed civil partnership, the district registrar is to enter in a book (to be known as “the civil partnership book”) supplied to him for that purpose by the Registrar General such particulars, extracted from the notice, as may be prescribed and the date of receipt by him of that notice.
(2) The form and content of any page of that book is to be prescribed.
(1) Where notices of a proposed civil partnership are submitted to a district registrar, he must, as soon as practicable after the day on which they are submitted (or, if the two documents are not submitted on the same day, after the day on which the first is submitted), publicise the relevant information and send it to the Registrar General who must also publicise it.
(2) “The relevant information” means—
(a) the names of the intended civil partners, and
(b) the date on which it is intended to register them as civil partners of each other, being a date more than 14 days after publicisation by the district registrar under subsection (1).
(3) Paragraph (b) of subsection (2) is subject to section 91.
(4) The manner in which and means by which relevant information is to be publicised are to be prescribed.
An authorised registrar who receives a request in writing from one or both of two intended civil partners that they should be registered as civil partners of each other on a date specified in the request (being a date 14 days or fewer after publicisation by the district registrar under subsection (1) of section 90) may, provided that he is authorised to do so by the Registrar General, fix that date as the date for registration; and if a date is so fixed, paragraph (b) of subsection (2) of that section is to be construed as if it were a reference to that date.
(1) Any person may at any time before the registration in Scotland of two people as civil partners of each other submit in writing an objection to such registration to the district registrar.
(2) But where the objection is that the intended civil partners are not eligible to be in civil partnership with each other because either is incapable of—
(a) understanding the nature of civil partnership, or
(b) validly consenting to its formation,
it shall be accompanied by a supporting certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner.
(3) A person claiming that he may have reason to submit such an objection may, free of charge and at any time when the registration office at which a notice of proposed civil partnership to which the objection would relate is open for public business, inspect any relevant entry in the civil partnership book.
(4) Where the district registrar receives an objection in accordance with subsection (1) he must—
(a) in any case where he is satisfied that the objection relates to no more than a misdescription or inaccuracy in a notice submitted under section 88(1)—
(i) notify the intended civil partners of the nature of the objection and make such enquiries into the matter mentioned in it as he thinks fit, and
(ii) subject to the approval of the Registrar General, make any necessary correction to any document relating to the proposed civil partnership, or
(b) in any other case—
(i) at once notify the Registrar General of the objection, and
(ii) pending consideration of the objection by the Registrar General, suspend the completion or issue of the civil partnership schedule in respect of the proposed civil partnership.
(5) If the Registrar General is satisfied, on consideration of an objection of which he has received notification under subsection (4)(b)(i) that—
(a) there is a legal impediment to registration, he must direct the district registrar not to register the intended civil partners and to notify them accordingly, or
(b) there is no such impediment, he must inform the district registrar to that effect.
(6) For the purposes of this section and section 94, there is a legal impediment to registration where the intended civil partners are not eligible to be in civil partnership with each other.
(1) Two people may be registered as civil partners of each other at a registration office or any other place which they and the local registration authority agree is to be the place of registration.
(2) The place of registration may, if the approval of the Registrar General is obtained, be outwith the district of the authorised registrar carrying out the registration.
(3) But the place must not be in religious premises, that is to say premises which—
(a) are used solely or mainly for religious purposes, or
(b) have been so used and have not subsequently been used solely or mainly for other purposes.
(4) “Local registration authority” has the meaning given by section 5(3) of the 1965 Act.
Where—
(a) the district registrar has received a notice of proposed civil partnership in respect of each of the intended civil partners and—
(i) is satisfied that there is no legal impediment to their registration as civil partners of each other, or
(ii) as the case may be, is informed under section 92(5)(b) that there is no such impediment,
(b) the 14 days mentioned in paragraph (b) of section 90(2) have expired (or as the case may be the date which, by virtue of section 91, that paragraph is to be construed as a reference to has been reached), and
(c) the period which has elapsed since the day of receipt of the notices by him (or, if the two notices were not received on the same day, since the day of receipt of the later) does not exceed 3 months,
he is to complete a civil partnership schedule in the prescribed form.
(1) Before the persons present sign in accordance with section 85 the authorised registrar is to require the intended civil partners to confirm that (to the best of their knowledge) the particulars set out in the civil partnership schedule are correct.
(2) As soon as practicable after the civil partnership schedule has been signed, the authorised registrar must cause those particulars to be entered in a register (to be known as the “civil partnership register”) supplied to him for that purpose by the Registrar General.
(3) The form and content of any page of that register is to be prescribed.
(4) A fee payable by the intended civil partners for their registration as civil partners of each other is to be prescribed.
(1) Where an intended civil partner has a full gender recognition certificate issued under section 5(1) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7) and the other intended civil partner was the other party in the proceedings in which the certificate was issued, the procedures for their registration as civil partners of each other may—
(a) if they so elect, and
(b) if each of them submits a notice under section 88(1) within 30 days after the certificate is issued,
be expedited as follows.
(2) The registration may take place on any of the 30 days immediately following—
(a) that on which the notices are submitted, or
(b) (if the two notices are not submitted on the same day) that on which the later is submitted.
(3) And accordingly there are to be disregarded—
(a) in section 90—
(i) in subsection (2)(b), the words from “being” to the end, and
(ii) subsection (3),
(b) section 91, and
(c) in section 94, paragraph (b).
(1) This section applies where—
(a) two people propose to register as civil partners of each other under Chapter 1 of Part 2, and
(b) one of them (“A”) resides in Scotland but the other (“B”) resides in England or Wales.
(2) A may submit a notice of intention to register under section 88 as if A and B intended to register as civil partners in the district in which A resides.
(3) If the district registrar is satisfied (after consultation, if he considers it necessary, with the Registrar General) that there is no impediment (in terms of section 92(6)) to A registering as B’s civil partner, he must issue a certificate to A in the prescribed form that there is not known to be any such impediment.
(4) But the certificate may not be issued to A earlier than 14 days after the receipt (as entered in the civil partnership notice book) of the notice under subsection (2) unless—
(a) the circumstances are as mentioned in section 96(1), and
(b) A makes an election for the certificate to be issued as soon as possible.
(5) Any person may, at any time before a certificate is issued under subsection (3), submit to the district registrar an objection in writing to its issue.
(6) Any objection made under subsection (5) must be taken into account by the district registrar in deciding whether he is satisfied that there is no legal impediment to A registering as B’s civil partner.
Sections 34 (examination of registers by district examiners), 37(1) and (2) (search of indexes kept by registrars), 38(1) and (2) (search of indexes kept by Registrar General) and 44 (Register of Corrections etc.) of the 1965 Act apply in relation to the civil partnership register as they apply in relation to the registers of births, deaths and marriages.
(1) No alteration is to be made in the civil partnership register except as authorised by or under this or any other Act (“Act” including an Act of the Scottish Parliament).
(2) Any clerical error in the register or error in it of a kind prescribed may be corrected by the district registrar.
(3) The Registrar General may authorise district examiners (“district examiner” having the meaning given by section 2(1) of the 1965 Act) to correct any error in the register of a type specified by him which they discover during an examination under section 34 of the 1965 Act.
(1) A person (“A”) commits an offence who registers in Scotland as the civil partner of another person (“B”) knowing that either or both—
(a) A is already married to or in civil partnership with a person other than B, or
(b) B is already married to or in civil partnership with a person other than A.
(2) A person commits an offence who knowingly—
(a) falsifies or forges any civil partnership document (that is to say, any document issued or made, or purporting to be issued or made, or required, under this Part),
(b) uses, or gives or sends to any person as genuine, any false or forged civil partnership document,
(c) being an authorised registrar, purports to register two people as civil partners of each other before any civil partnership schedule available to him at the time of registration has been duly completed,
(d) not being an authorised registrar, conducts himself in such a way as to lead intended civil partners to believe that he is authorised to register them as civil partners of each other,
(e) being an authorised registrar, purports to register two people as civil partners of each other without both of them being present, or
(f) being an authorised registrar, purports to register two people as civil partners of each other in a place other than a registration office or a place agreed under section 93.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under subsection (1) or (2) is liable—
(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine (or both);
(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (or both).
(4) Summary proceedings for an offence under subsection (1) or (2) may be commenced at any time within 3 months after evidence sufficient in the opinion of the Lord Advocate to justify the proceedings comes to his knowledge or within 12 months after the offence is committed (whichever period last expires).
(5) Subsection (3) of section 136 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (c. 46) (time limits) has effect for the purposes of this section as it has for the purposes of that section.
(1) Where, apart from the provisions of this Chapter, one civil partner in a civil partnership is entitled, or permitted by a third party, to occupy a family home of the civil partnership (that civil partner being referred in this Chapter as an “entitled partner”) and the other civil partner is not so entitled or permitted (a “non-entitled partner”), the non-entitled partner has, subject to the provisions of this Chapter, the following rights—
(a) if in occupation, a right to continue to occupy the family home;
(b) if not in occupation, a right to enter into and occupy the family home.
(2) The rights conferred by subsection (1) to continue to occupy or, as the case may be, to enter and occupy the family home include, without prejudice to their generality, the right to do so together with any child of the family.
(3) In subsection (1), an “entitled partner” includes a civil partner who is entitled, or permitted by a third party, to occupy the family home along with an individual who is not the other civil partner only if that individual has waived a right of occupation in favour of the civil partner so entitled or permitted.
(4) If the entitled partner refuses to allow the non-entitled partner to exercise the right conferred by subsection (1)(b), the non-entitled partner may exercise that right only with the leave of the Court of Session or the sheriff under section 103(3) or (4).
(5) A non-entitled partner may renounce in writing the rights mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) only—
(a) in a particular family home, or
(b) in a particular property which it is intended by the civil partners will become their family home.
(6) A renunciation under subsection (5) has effect only if, at the time of making the renunciation, the non-entitled partner swears or affirms before a notary public that it is made freely and without coercion of any kind.
(7) In this Part—
“child of the family” means a child under the age of 16 years who has been accepted by both civil partners as a child of the family, and
“family” means the civil partners in the civil partnership, together with any child so accepted by them.
(8) In subsection (6), “notary public” includes any person duly authorised, by the law of the country other than Scotland in which the swearing or affirmation takes place, to administer oaths or receive affirmations in that other country.
(1) For the purpose of securing the occupancy rights of a non-entitled partner, that partner is, in relation to a family home, entitled without the consent of the entitled partner—
(a) to make any payment due by the entitled partner in respect of rent, rates, secured loan instalments, interest or other outgoings (not being outgoings on repairs or improvements);
(b) to perform any other obligation incumbent on the entitled partner (not being an obligation in respect of non-essential repairs or improvements);
(c) to enforce performance of an obligation by a third party which that third party has undertaken to the entitled partner to the extent that the entitled partner may enforce such performance;
(d) to carry out such essential repairs as the entitled partner may carry out;
(e) to carry out such non-essential repairs or improvements as may be authorised by an order of the court, being such repairs or improvements as the entitled partner may carry out and which the court considers to be appropriate for the reasonable enjoyment of the occupancy rights;
(f) to take such other steps, for the purpose of protecting the occupancy rights of the non-entitled partner, as the entitled partner may take to protect the occupancy rights of the entitled partner.
(2) Any payment made under subsection (1)(a) or any obligation performed under subsection (1)(b) has effect in relation to the rights of a third party as if the payment were made or the obligation were performed by the entitled partner; and the performance of an obligation which has been enforced under subsection (1)(c) has effect as if it had been enforced by the entitled partner.
(3) Where there is an entitled and a non-entitled partner, the court, on the application of either of them, may, having regard in particular to the respective financial circumstances of the partners, make an order apportioning expenditure incurred or to be incurred by either partner—
(a) without the consent of the other partner, on any of the items mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (d) of subsection (1);
(b) with the consent of the other partner, on anything relating to a family home.
(4) Where both partners are entitled, or permitted by a third party, to occupy a family home—
(a) either partner is entitled, without the consent of the other partner, to carry out such non-essential repairs or improvements as may be authorised by an order of the court, being such repairs or improvements as the court considers to be appropriate for the reasonable enjoyment of the occupancy rights;
(b) the court, on the application of either partner, may, having regard in particular to the respective financial circumstances of the partners, make an order apportioning expenditure incurred or to be incurred by either partner, with or without the consent of the other partner, on anything relating to the family home.
(5) Where one partner (“A”) owns or hires, or is acquiring under a hire-purchase or conditional sale agreement, furniture and plenishings in a family home—
(a) the other partner may, without the consent of A—
(i) make any payment due by A which is necessary, or take any other step which A is entitled to take, to secure the possession or use of any such furniture and plenishings (and any such payment is to have effect in relation to the rights of a third party as if it were made by A), or
(ii) carry out such essential repairs to the furniture and plenishings as A is entitled to carry out;
(b) the court, on the application of either partner, may, having regard in particular to the respective financial circumstances of the partners, make an order apportioning expenditure incurred or to be incurred by either partner—
(i) without the consent of the other partner, in making payments under a hire, hire-purchase or conditional sale agreement, or in paying interest charges in respect of the furniture and plenishings, or in carrying out essential repairs to the furniture and plenishings, or
(ii) with the consent of the other partner, on anything relating to the furniture or plenishings.
(6) An order under subsection (3), (4)(b) or (5)(b) may require one partner to make a payment to the other partner in implementation of the apportionment.
(7) Any application under subsection (3), (4)(b) or (5)(b) is to be made within 5 years after the date on which any payment in respect of such incurred expenditure was made.
(8) Where—
(a) the entitled partner is a tenant of a family home,
(b) possession of it is necessary in order to continue the tenancy, and
(c) the entitled partner abandons such possession,
the tenancy is continued by such possession by the non-entitled partner.
(9) In this section “improvements” includes alterations and enlargement.
(1) Where there is an entitled and a non-entitled partner, or where both partners are entitled, or permitted by a third party, to occupy a family home, either partner may apply to the court for an order—
(a) declaring the occupancy rights of the applicant partner;
(b) enforcing the occupancy rights of the applicant partner;
(c) restricting the occupancy rights of the non-applicant partner;
(d) regulating the exercise by either partner of his or her occupancy rights;
(e) protecting the occupancy rights of the applicant partner in relation to the other partner.
(2) Where one partner owns or hires, or is acquiring under a hire-purchase or conditional sale agreement, furniture and plenishings in a family home and the other partner has occupancy rights in that home, that other person may apply to the court for an order granting to the applicant the possession or use in the family home of any such furniture and plenishings; but, subject to section 102, an order under this subsection does not prejudice the rights of any third party in relation to the non-performance of any obligation under such hire-purchase or conditional sale agreement.
(3) The court is to grant an application under subsection (1)(a) if it appears to the court that the application relates to a family home; and, on an application under any of paragraphs (b) to (e) of subsection (1) or under subsection (2), the court may make such order relating to the application as appears to it to be just and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances of the case including—
(a) the conduct of the partners, whether in relation to each other or otherwise,
(b) the respective needs and financial resources of the partners,
(c) the needs of any child of the family,
(d) the extent (if any) to which—
(i) the family home, and
(ii) in relation only to an order under subsection (2), any item of furniture and plenishings referred to in that subsection, is used in connection with a trade, business or profession of either partner, and
(e) whether the entitled partner offers or has offered to make available to the non-entitled partner any suitable alternative accommodation.