Commentary on Sections Part 7 – Miscellaneous Section 250: Gender Recognition where applicant a civil partner
483.This section amends the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to ensure that anyone who applies for recognition of his or her acquired gender under the Gender Recognition Act who is in a civil partnership is treated in the same way as someone who is married, and to make additional consequential amendments to that Act.
484.Initially, an applicant for gender recognition who is a civil partner will only receive an interim gender recognition certificate. If an interim gender recognition certificate has been issued the civil partnership is voidable under section 50(1)(d) in England and Wales or section 174(1)(d) in Northern Ireland and it may be annulled under section 37 or 161. In Scotland the civil partnership may be dissolved under section 117(2)(b). New section 5A of the Gender Recognition Act provides that a court which makes final a nullity order (or in Scotland grant a decree of dissolution) on this ground must, on doing so, issue a full gender recognition certificate. If an interim gender recognition certificate has been issued to a person and his civil partnership comes to an end in any other way, the applicant may apply to the Gender Recognition Panel for a full gender recognition certificate within certain time limits, showing that the civil partnership has ended and that the applicant has not subsequently formed a new civil partnership or married.