Civil Partnership

Civil partnerships give couples the opportunity to enter into a binding commitment to each other which has legal recognition.

Civil Partnership Ceremony

The ceremony can be as simple as signing the register in front of the registrar and two witnesses or a more elaborate ceremony in front of friends and family.Our registrar's office has a marriage room in Elgin or choose another venue agreed by you and your partner, the senior registrar and venue owner.

Registering a Civil Partnership

You can collect civil partnership notice forms (CP10) from any registrar’s office in Scotland. They can be also be viewed, downloaded and printed with accompanying notes from the National Records of Scotland. The registrar can provide information on fees and a form for the notification of witnesses’ names and addresses. You must lodge your civil partnership notice forms a minimum of 29 days before the date of your civil partnership ceremony and not more than three months.

Along with the civil partnership notice forms, you should both provide:

• birth certificate;
• proof of residency (eg. utilities or council tax bill - dated within the last three months);
• evidence of your nationality (eg. passport)—if you are not a British citizen or were born after 1st January 1983;
• a decree of divorce or dissolution or annulment or a certified copy decree—if you have been married or in a registered civil partnership before and the marriage or civil partnership has been dissolved or annulled; 
• death certificate of your former civil partner or spouse—if you are a surviving civil partner or a widow or widower; and
• civil partnership fees.

Please note: If any of these documents are in a language other than English, a certified translation in English must also be provided.

If you and the person you are registering a civil partnership with are related in any way, please contact the registrar’s office for advice.

Do not delay giving notice simply because you are waiting for any documents to come to hand. These may be supplied later but it is critical that they are supplied to the registrar before the ceremony.

If you would like to discuss your ideas further we are happy to assist you. Please contact the registrar’s office for more information.

Frequently asked questions View fees