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Registration of Civil Partnerships (Prescription of Forms, Publicisation and Errors) (Scotland) Regulations 2005<br />(SSI 2005/458)
Item 3 is subordinate legislation. I welcome John McCafferty from the General Register Office for Scotland. He is here to answer members' questions. Scottish statutory instrument 2005/458 is subject to the negative procedure. Do not be confused by the fact that we have a witness here—we simply thought that members might have questions to ask about the regulations, so this is an opportunity to clarify any points. John, do you want to say anything before we begin our questions?
No.
I have a technical question. Can you confirm that the technical provisions and the forms will allow the registration of up to 200 characters for forenames and up to 50 characters for surnames, which is in alignment with the provisions that the registrars make for registration of births?
Basically, the computer system that has been set up for civil partnerships mirrors that which is set up for marriages; therefore, the same number of characters will be allowed for civil partnerships as are allowed for a marriage.
That leads to my secondary question: do the arrangements for registration of a marriage mirror those for the registration of names at birth?
To be honest, I would need to speak to our technical colleagues who set up the system. However, I imagine that they took account of the length of names and allowed enough room for them to be entered.
I raise the point in an entirely personal capacity, because I constantly have difficulties in that regard. I am perfectly content that the situation is likely to be okay. It might be useful to have that confirmed later.
I should add that if the computer system did not allow the required number of characters to be entered, the event could be registered manually to allow the full name to be added.
That is sufficient for my purposes. Thank you.
Are there any more comments or questions? I think we have run out of steam.
I just wanted to show that I had read the regulations.
I have a question. The form refers to "Marital … status". Why is that necessary?
Are you asking in relation to the certificate of no impediment at schedule 4, which refers to
Yes.
I will explain the purpose of the certificate of no impediment. If a person wants to register their civil partnership in England or Wales, they can submit notice in Scotland, instead of doing it down south. The registrar in Scotland examines all the paperwork and documentation and completes the form, which is then handed to the registrar down south. The registrar down south needs to know the marital or civil partnership status of the person, because the person entering the civil partnership could have been in a marriage and be divorced. The registrar will be interested to see that the person is divorced, because their marital status will be needed for the English records. The certificate also signifies that the registrar in Scotland has been made aware that the person is divorced, and has checked divorce documents and so on.
I once had to obtain a certificate of no impediment because I was married abroad. Its purpose is precisely to indicate that there is no impediment, no matter which procedure one goes through. It must be obtained from a registry office here. It does exactly what it says on the tin—it says that there is no impediment to the person entering a marriage or civil partnership. It is pretty sensible.
There are no further questions. We appreciate your coming along, albeit that you were required only briefly.
That is okay.
He only got one question and he did not know the answer.
Oh! Unfair!
Enough. We can safely say that the committee is happy with everything else in the form. We do not need to report on much. Everyone's questions have been answered satisfactorily. Thank you for appearing before the committee.
Meeting continued in private until 13:31.
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