Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to recognise civil partnerships granted by the government of the Isle of Man to opposite sex couples who are resident in the UK.

The 2004 Civil Partnership Act created civil partnerships for same sex couples only. The Act sets out how such relationships entered into outside the UK will be treated. It lists overseas relationships that will be treated as civil partnerships in the UK. It also sets out the conditions that, if met, will result in a relationship entered into elsewhere - but not included in the list - being treated as a civil partnership here.

As opposite sex couples cannot lawfully register a civil partnership here, the Act provides that couples registering a relationship overseas are not to be treated as having formed a civil partnership if, at the time the relationship was formed, they were not of the same sex.

This rule applies in the same way wherever a couple registers their relationship, and treats UK nationals and couples from elsewhere in the same way. It means that an opposite sex civil partnership registered in the Isle of Man is not treated as a civil partnership as a matter of UK law.