New law to convert civil partnerships to marriage

Same-sex couples in Northern Ireland will soon be able to convert their civil partnership to a marriage, the government has said.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said the laws will come into force on 7 December.

It followed a six-week public consultation for what conversion rights couples should have in NI.

The regulations will provide a three-year window to convert an existing civil partnership into a marriage.

Fees will be waived during the first year, the government said.

Opposite-sex couples will also be able to convert an existing marriage into a civil partnership.

Laws allowing same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland came into effect in January, but they did not extend to civil partnerships.

The first same-sex religious marriages were able to take place from September.

The government laid the new legislation on civil partnerships in Parliament on Thursday, and said all converted relationships would be "backdated", so that they would be treated as having existed from the date the original relationship was formed.

'Full marriage equality'

NIO minister Robin Walker said the government had fulfilled all of its commitments relating to same-sex marriage and civil partnership provision in Northern Ireland.

"It is right that all couples in Northern Ireland now have access to the equivalent legal relationships and associated rights, protections and entitlements, as couples living in the rest of the UK, and I am pleased that we have been able to bring forward the necessary regulations to make this possible," he said.

He added that any further changes to marriage and civil partnership law will be a matter for the NI Executive and Assembly to take forward.

Amnesty International said the move marks "the last stage in achieving full marriage equality" in Northern Ireland.

Patrick Corrigan, NI director of the organisation said it was a "huge day of celebration".

"We fought to change the law so it would cherish all couples and all families equally and now we have achieved that - first with civil marriage, then religious marriage and now finally, with civil partnership conversion," he added.

Finance Minister Conor Murphy said it was a "huge step forward for marriage equality".

"There are over 1,300 same sex civil partnerships. From December, these couples will have the right to convert their civil partnership to a marriage."