Commentary on Sections Schedule 12 – Prohibited degrees of relationship: Northern Ireland
681.This Schedule sets out the degrees of relationship between persons who may not register as civil partners of each other. It deals with both absolute prohibitions and qualified prohibitions and corresponds to prohibitions to marriage.
682.Paragraph 1 contains the list of absolute prohibitions. No civil partnership between two persons who stand in relation to each other as described in paragraph 1 is ever valid.
683.Paragraphs 2 and 3 deal with qualified prohibitions. A civil partnership between two persons who stand in relation to each other as described in paragraph 2(1) and 3 is not valid unless certain conditions apply.
684.Paragraph 2 deals with what may be referred to as "step-relationships". For example, a civil partnership between a woman and the child of her former husband or civil partner will not be valid unless both have reached the age of 21 and the younger of the two persons has not at any time before reaching the age of 18 been a child of the family in relation to the other person.
685.Paragraph 2(1) defines "child of the family" to mean a person who (a) has lived in the same household as the other person and (b) has been treated by that other person as a child of the family.
686.Paragraph 3 deals with civil partnerships between what may be referred to as "in-laws". For example, a civil partnership between a man and the husband or former civil partner of his child will not be valid unless both have reached the age of 21 and both the man's child and that child's other parent are dead.