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what age can you have a civil partnership?

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Hi what age? Thanks for sending us your enquiry.

We understand that you would like to know at which age you are able to have a civil partnership. In short the answer is eighteen without parental consent and sixteen if you have parental consent. You cannot register if you are aged under sixteen .

The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005 and enables same-sex couples to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. Couples who form a civil partnership have a new legal status, that of 'civil partner'.

Civil partners have equal treatment to married couples in a wide range of legal matters, including:

Tax, including inheritance tax
Employment benefits
Most state and occupational pension benefits
Income-related benefits, tax credits and child support
Duty to provide reasonable maintenance for your civil partner and any children of the family
Ability to apply for parental responsibility for your civil partner's child
Inheritance of a tenancy agreement
Access to fatal accidents compensation
Protection from domestic violence
Recognition for immigration and nationality purposes

In order to form a civil partnership you must first ‘give notice’. This involves stating your intention to register a civil partnership to your registration authority. Once given, your notices are publicised by the registration authority for a period of 15 days. A civil partnership can be formed in England and Wales at a register office or approved premises.For more information about how to form a civil partnership you could contact the Register Office. The nearest one to Colne is the Ribble Valley Register Office.

The contact details are:
Ribble Valley Register Office
Pimlico Rd
Clitheroe, BB7 2BW

Tel: 01200 420492

If you are living together and not in a civil partnership or marriage this is called co-habiting and despite what many people think you do not have the same rights as if you were married or in a civil partnership. Some people believe that if you live together for long enough you are treated as if you were married, a "common law" marriage, but this is not the case. You can find out about the current rights of co-habiting couples from Advicenow – an independent website offering information on rights and legal issues. Their ‘Living Together’ campaign is intended to make both opposite and same-sex co-habitants more aware of their legal status. The campaign also provides advice on how to protect yourself and your family, should you wish to do so.

The website can be found at http://www.advicenow.org.uk

If you would like more information about the differences in the legal position of married and unmarried couples, the ‘Married or Not’ section of the One Plus One website provides a good overview at:

www-oneplusone.org.uk/marriedornot

Finally if you are a young person in a same sex couple the Citizen;s Advice Bureau has some good, detailed information about the rights of same sex couples, including info about civil partnerships:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/f_rights_of_same_sex-couples.pdf

We hope that you have found our response helpful. If you would like to ask anything else about civil partnerships or you have any another enquiry please feel free to get in touch with us again.

Best Wishes

q2a

Expert advice and every precaution has been taken to ensure that the information on this page is trustworthy and reliable, but the publishers do not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracy as information can go out of date very quickly. This page gives general guidance only and should not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law. With regard to suggested weblinks given in this reply please note that Lancashire County Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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