Background

The Civil Partnership Act 2004 received the Royal Assent on 18 November 2004. Section 263 of the Act provides for the coming into force of its provisions. All the substantive provisions of the Act are to come into force by commencement orders. At the date of publication of this book at least one commencement order has been made, namely the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (Commencement Order No.1) Order 2005 (S.I. 112) and the indication from the Department of Constitutional Affairs is that because of the large volume of rules to be made in the wake of the Act, it will not to be brought fully into force until 5 December 2005.

The Act was heralded by a document originating in the Women and Equality Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry in June 2003 entitled ‘Civil Partnership – A framework for the legal recognition of same-sex couples’ with a foreword by Jacqui Smith M.P., the then Minister of State for Industry and the Regions and Deputy Minister for Women and Equality. Her words are an attempt to summarise or encapsulate what the government perceived as the unfairness and injustice that the Act seeks to remedy. In that foreword the Minister stated: