The Civil Partnership Bill is a bill currently before the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was announced in the Queen's Speech at the start of the 2003/2004 legislative session, and its full text was revealed on March 31, 2004.
The Bill would introduce the concept of civil unions into England and Wales and Northern Ireland law. Scotland's Parliament has voted in favour of a Sewel Motion allowing Westminster to legislate for Scotland in this Bill. These civil partnerships would be available for same-sex couples but not for different-sex ones. After registering a civil partnership, partners would gain certain rights and obligations with respect to each other. For example, inheritance tax would have waived as it is with married couples, and there would be a right of succession for tenancy.
The Bill has met with broad support from all of the UK's major political parties. However, it has also faced criticism on several fronts - from people worried that marriage would be diluted by extending the rights of it to others, from people who feel the government should simply extend marriage, and from different-sex couples who wish themselves to have the right to enter into a non-marriage civil partnership.
In a debate on the Bill in the House of Lords on June 24, 2004, opponents of the Bill voted in favour of a wrecking amendment moved by Detta O'Cathain to extend civil partnership to blood relatives who have lived long enough together.