The consultation, launched today, looks at how this will work in practice. You can give your response by visiting the Government Equalities Office website.
LGBT equality minister, Lynne Featherstone MP, 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.’
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 to host these registrations.
This would work in a similar way to the existing process for non-religious venues such as hotels which have to obtain approval to host civil marriages and partnership registrations.
The consultation will run until 23 June.
