Your views needed on civil partnerships
Views needed on how plans to lift a ban on civil partnerships taking place in religious settings will work in practice.
Plans to lift a ban on couples registering civil partnerships in religious settings in England and Wales were announced in February.
Today’s consultation looks at how this will work in practice. Give us your response by visiting the Government Equalities Office website.
Freedom of religion
Lynne Featherstone said: ‘The government is committed to both advancing equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people and ensuring freedom of religion for people of all faiths.’
She added: ‘No religious group will be forced to host a civil partnership registration, but for those who wish to do so this is an important step forward.’
Two-stage process
The consultation document sets out proposals for a two-stage process. It would see faith groups first agreeing whether to allow civil partnership registrations on their premises.
Following this agreement, individual religious premises could then apply to their local authority for to host these registrations.
This would work in a similar way to the existing process for non-religious venues such as hotels which are asking for approval to host civil marriages and partnership registrations.
The consultation will run until 23 June.
Transcript for Civil partnerships on religious premises