News and Press
Consultation announced for possible gay marriages

The Government has recently announced a consultation on extending marriage to same-sex couples. At present, only men and women are permitted to get married in the UK and civil partnerships, introduced six years ago, are only available to same-sex couples.

The consultation does not intend to consider opening civil partnerships to male/female relationships. This is despite growing interest amongst heterosexual couples who do not wish to be married but would like their relationship to be legally recognised and to gain the benefit of being part of such a legal union. An example of the disadvantage to unmarried couples is that they do not have the benefit of the spouse exemption for Inheritance Tax purposes.

Are we falling behind other nations?

Across the channel, the French equivalents of civil partnerships (known as pacte civil de solidarité or PACS) have been available to heterosexual and same-sex couples since 1999. In 2000, more than 75% of civil unions were signed between heterosexual couples, a trend that has increased over recent years with 95% of the 173,045 civil unions signed in France during 2009 being between heterosexual couples.

In America, six states now allow same-sex marriage whilst others such as California, Nevada and Hawaii have created legal unions for same-sex couples that offer varying rights similar to marriage under their respective state laws.

Dissolution v Divorce

So what is the problem in allowing everyone the same rights?

Natalie Drew, associate in TLT's Family team explains, "The proposed consultation is a welcome step - it is not clear why the differential needed to be made in the first instance.
Those in a Civil Partnership have exactly the same rights under property law, inheritance tax, social security, pension benefits, employment law, inheritance law and family law. The only practical differences between the two are the prohibitions on use of religious material in services (as with civil ceremonies for heterosexual couples) and ending the partnership on the basis of adultery- unreasonable behaviour is usually cited instead. For some people those differences will obviously be important. Heterosexual couples can get married in church if they want to use religious material. Same-sex couples have no such option.

If the idea truly is to achieve equality across the board regardless of sex or sexual orientation then we suggest that the consultation should really only have one possible outcome."