Explanatory note

These Regulations provide for the registration of marriages and civil partnerships in which one or both parties have obtained a full gender recognition certificate under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7). Changes made to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 by the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (c. 30) enable couples to remain married when one or both parties obtains a full gender recognition certificate, and to remain in a civil partnership when both parties obtain a full gender recognition certificate.

Regulation 3 requires the Registrar General to maintain a Gender Recognition Marriage Register, and a Gender Recognition Civil Partnership Register, which are not to be open for public inspection or search.

Part 2 is concerned with the Gender Recognition Marriage Register. The parties may jointly apply to the Registrar General under regulation 4 for the registration of their marriage in the Register, and regulation 5 requires the Registrar General to register the marriage and create a link (which is not to be open to public inspection) between the original marriage register entry and the new entry in the Gender Recognition Marriage Register.

Regulations 6 to 11 are concerned with the particulars required to be registered in the Gender Recognition Marriage Register. Regulation 6 sets out the basic position, which is that the Gender Recognition Marriage Register should contain the same particulars as were registered in the parties’ original marriage register entry, amended to reflect the name and gender of the party or parties to whom a full gender recognition certificate has been granted.

Regulations 7 to 10 make provision for the modification of the registered particulars in certain cases. Regulation 7 deals with situations where the marriage is the result of the conversion of a civil partnership (under section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013). Regulation 8 makes provision where registering the original date of the marriage or civil partnership would indicate that the couple had formed a marriage of a same sex couple before that was possible under the law of England and Wales, and enables the parties to opt for the entry in the Gender Recognition Marriage Register to record the marriage as having been solemnised on a later date. Regulation 9 prohibits the Registrar General from registering any particulars in the Gender Recognition Marriage Register that would indicate that a marriage was solemnised according to religious rites or usages, or on religious premises. Such marriages are to be treated as having been formed in a register office. Regulation 10 deals with marriages solemnized outside the United Kingdom according to the law of England and Wales.

Regulation 11 gives the Registrar General power to amend the particulars where necessary to ensure that the registration does not inadvertently reveal the fact that a person has obtained gender recognition.

Regulation 12 requires the Registrar General to add entries in the Gender Recognition Marriage Register to the index of marriage register entries, and regulation 13 provides for the issue of certified copies.

Part 3 is concerned with the Gender Recognition Civil Partnership Register and makes equivalent provision as is made for marriage, except that there is no provision for the modification of particulars in certain cases.

Part 4 makes general provision about certified copies of entries in the Gender Recognition Registers, for corrections to the registers, and for entries in the registers to be cancelled if a full gender recognition certificate is revoked.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.