Commentary on Provisions Power to enable marriages to become civil partnerships Section 4: Power to enable marriages to become civil partnerships
16.The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 made provision so that a civil partnership can be changed to a marriage. Section 4 of the Act provides the Scottish Ministers with a regulation-making power to enable marriages to become civil partnerships, if the parties so wish. The regulations may, among others things, make provision about the types of marriages the regulations are to apply to; the ways in which marriages can be changed to civil partnerships; and the effect of registering a civil partnership and changing a marriage into a civil partnership under the regulations, including when the resulting civil partnership is to be treated as having begun and when the marriage is to be treated as having ended.