The Government has published a consultation paper on the future of civil partnerships in England and Wales.
This is the full public consultation which was announced as part of the review of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 following the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. The consultation runs until 17 April 2014, and you can read and respond to it here.
When the law on same-sex marriage for England and Wales was debated last year it was noted that this left civil partnerships in a peculiar situation of being only open to same-sex couples while marriage would now be open to all.
More than three times as many couples have taken up civil partnership as was anticipated at the time they were introduced.
Following the debates at Westminster the government promised to carry out a review of civil partnership law. That might cover whether they should continue to be offered, be opened up to mixed-sex couples, or scrapped either converting existing partnerships to marriage or letting them continue as they stand.
In a survey of readers of bisexual magazine BCN, a clear majority backed opening up civil partnerships to any couple, as well as marriage.
