3 Apr 2006

The Civil Partnership Act became law on 18 November 2004. This attracted little attention on the day, because headlines were grabbed by the fox-hunting argument which was going on in the House of Lords at the same time.

From 5 December 2005 the Act allows same-sex couples to have their unions recognised in the UK as the equivalent of marriage, by registration of a civil partnership. The scope of the changes this has entailed is far-reaching – laws as diverse as those relating to inheritance to claims for jobseekers allowance are affected. Opposite-sex couples will not be eligible to form civil partnerships.

Same-sex couples will particularly welcome the provisions which will allow the application of standard Inheritance Tax planning techniques and the ability to transfer pensions to their partner.

It was not all welcome news, however. For example, there are some differences compared with the marriage ceremony – registration of a civil partnership will be a written process with no exchange of vows. This has been the subject of some criticism.

One crucial point about the civil partnership that is not often mentioned is that (like marriage) registration will revoke an existing will. Couples planning to register their partnerships should therefore arrange for new wills to be drawn up as a priority as failure to do so will leave civil partners intestate, their existing wills no longer being valid. This could have disastrous effects should one of them die.