Civil Partnership Act 2004

216 The same-sex requirement U.K.

[F1 (1) Two people are not to be treated as having formed a civil partnership as a result of having registered an overseas relationship if, at the critical time, they were not of the same sex under United Kingdom law.

(2) But if a full gender recognition certificate is issued under the 2004 Act to a person who has registered an overseas relationship which is within subsection (4), after the issue of the certificate the relationship is no longer prevented from being treated as a civil partnership on the ground that, at the critical time, the parties were not of the same sex.

(3) However, subsection (2) does not apply to an overseas relationship which is within subsection (4) if either of the parties has formed a subsequent civil partnership or lawful marriage.

(4) An overseas relationship is within this subsection if (and only if), at the time mentioned in section 215(2)—

(a) one of the parties (“A”) was regarded under the relevant law as having changed gender (but was not regarded under United Kingdom law as having done so), and

(b) the other party was (under United Kingdom law) of the gender to which A had changed under the relevant law.

(5) In this section—

• “the critical time” means the time determined in accordance with section 215(2) or (as the case may be) (3);

• “the 2004 Act” means the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7);

• “United Kingdom law” means any enactment or rule of law applying in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

(6) Nothing in this section prevents the exercise of any [F2 right which forms part of retained EU law by virtue of section 3 or 4 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018].]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 216 omitted (E.W.) (2.12.2019) by virtue of The Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1458), regs. 1(2), 5(5) and (N.I.) (13.1.2020) by virtue of The Marriage (Same-sex Couples) and Civil Partnership (Opposite-sex Couples) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/1514), regs. 1(2), 17(5) (with regs. 6-9); and (S.) (1.2.2021 for specified purposes) by Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2020 (asp 15), ss. 2(5), 16; S.S.I. 2020/414, reg. 2(1)(a)(2)

F2 Words in s. 216(6) substituted (31.12.2020) by The Equality (Amendment and Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/305), regs. 1, 3(2); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)