David Cameron has given a personal guarantee to legalise gay marriage by 2015.

David Cameron has given a personal guarantee to legalise gay marriage by 2015. Despite unease on the issue within his own party, Cameron said: “It’s something I feel passionately about and I think if it’s good enough for straight people like me, its good enough for everybody and that’s why we should have gay marriage and we will.” This recent policy shift has led many to ask: what does this mean for gay couples?

Since 2005 gay couples have been able to register their commitments through civil partnerships. Civil partners enjoy many of the same legal protections as married couples including property rights, exemptions on inheritance tax, social security and pension benefits.

Civil partners can acquire ‘parental responsibility’ for their partner’s children. This means that they are legally entitled to be involved in decisions about the children’s upbringing, even if the partners separate. A civil partner with parental responsibility can apply to the courts for contact or residence of a child, as well as other orders, in the same way as divorced parents.

The process of dissolving a civil partnership is also very similar to a divorce for married couples and a financial settlement is reached in the same way as a divorce settlement.  This means civil partners have claims against each another for a variety of financial orders including sale or transfer of a property, payments of a cash lump sum, maintenance and a claim against the other’s pension.

It’s unclear from David Cameron’s statement what the legal impact of introducing gay marriage in place of civil partnerships would be.  As civil partners have a wide variety of claims on separation, both in relation to children and finances, it is however important that advice is taken from an expert family lawyer as early as possible in the event of separation.

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Contact: Eleanor Aguirre

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