The partnership register

On 5 September the first couple signed the new Greater London Authority Partnership Register which is intended as a public statement of a couple’s commitment to one another. It is open to both hetrosexual and homosexual couples. One partner must live in London. A fee is payable. However, the Register confers absolutely no additional legal rights on those joining it. Writing in The Times of 11 September James Coxon said the temptation is to dismiss the Register as a gimmick, but to do so is to disregard its significance. Although the new Register may have no immediate legal status, he continued, it has potent symbolism: ‘It provides an immediate focal point to ignite the long-overdue debate on whether, and if so what, greater legal rights would be available to cohabitants’. It was significant that in 1999 there were only 263,000 marriages in England and Wales compared with 404,700 in 1971.