PART 3 Civil Partnership and Marriage: Conversion from one into the other

Interpretation

5.  In this Part—

“a conversion under this Part” means a conversion, pursuant to regulation 3(1)(a) or (3)(a), of—

(a)

a civil partnership into a marriage, or

(b)

a marriage into a civil partnership;

“conversion before an officiant” means a conversion under this Part which—

(a)

is from a civil partnership into a marriage, and

(b)

follows—

(i)

the version of the two-stage procedure offered by regulation 7(6)(a) and (c)(iii),

(ii)

the version of the special procedure offered by regulation 7(8)(a) and (b)(ii), or

(iii)

the version of the procedure for detained persons offered by regulation 7(10)(a) and (b)(ii);

“conversion declaration” has the meaning given by regulation 10;

“hospital” means—

(a)

a hospital, or institution, managed by a Health and Social Care trust or the Regional Health and Social Care Board or the Department of Health in Northern Ireland,

(b)

a private hospital, or

(c)

special accommodation;

“officiant” means—

(a)

a person registered under Article 11 of the Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003(1) for marriages of parties who are of the same sex,

(b)

a person authorised under Article 14(1)(a) of that Order (as modified by regulation 15) to officiate at one or more specified conversions under this Part, or

(c)

a person authorised under Article 14(1)(b) of that Order for marriages of parties who are of the same sex;

“patient”, “private hospital” and “special accommodation” have the meaning given by Article 2(2) of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986(2);

“prison” includes a remand centre, a young offenders centre and a juvenile justice centre;

“registrar”—

(a)

in relation to a conversion under this Part of a civil partnership into a marriage, means a person appointed under Article 31 of the Marriage (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 for the district in which the conversion takes place, and

(b)

in relation to a conversion under this Part of a marriage into a civil partnership, means a person appointed under section 152 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 for the district in which the conversion takes place;

“the required information and evidence”, in relation to a conversion under this Part, has the meaning given by whichever of regulations 8 and 9 is applicable;

“responsible authority”, in relation to a conversion under this Part which follows the procedure for detained persons, means—

(a)

if any part of the procedure is to take place in a prison, the governor or other officer in charge of the prison,

(b)

if any part of the procedure is to take place in a hospital that is neither a private hospital nor special accommodation, the trust or other authority managing the hospital,

(c)

if any part of the procedure is to take place in special accommodation, the Department of Health, and

(d)

if any part of the procedure is to take place in a private hospital, the person in charge of the hospital;

“standard procedure”, “two-stage procedure”, “special procedure” and “procedure for detained persons”, and “first part” and “second part” in relation to any of those procedures, have the meaning given by regulation 7.

(1)

S.I. 2003/413 (N.I. 3). Articles 11 and 14 were amended by S.I. 2020/742.

(2)

S.I. 1986/595 (N.I. 4). In Article 2(2) there are amendments not relevant to these Regulations. Article 90(2) (which defines “private hospital”) was amended by S.I. 1994/429 (N.I. 2) and paragraph 1(1)(d) of Schedule 6 to the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (c. 1 (N.I.)).