Couple can enter civil partnership after court case

The judge dissolved the PACS, as agreed in France, which the couple entered into in 2019

A couple “embroiled in a tangle of red tape” can form a civil partnership in the UK after a similar arrangement they entered into in France was dissolved.

The British heterosexual couple, who live in Oxfordshire, formalised their relationship while living in France in 2019.

They returned to live in the UK in 2022 and had understood it would be “extremely simple” to dissolve the PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, or civil solidary pact).

But they said they were “dismayed” to have found themselves in what they said appeared to be “complex issues of law”.

Judge Joanna Vincent, sitting at Oxford's Family Court, formally recognised the PACS had been dissolved in France and declared they could form a civil partnership on Monday.

She said those involved were “two honest and decent individuals who followed advice at every turn” but faced “significant expense and had to wait a long time to progress their civil partnership” in the UK.

The pair were aware of the “light touch” agreement in France, which was less formal than marriage but still a “mutual commitment, and something that would provide an extent of formality to their financial arrangements”, she added.

But the couple were previously told they would have had to declare their relationship had broken down if they wanted to form a civil partnership in the UK.

They then applied to the court for a declaration that the dissolution was valid.

About 200,000 heterosexual couples entered into a PACS in France in 2022, with about 235,000 heterosexual couples married, the court was told at a hearing in September.