Amendments to the Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister has concluded its consultation on proposed amendments to the Sexual Orientation Regulations which are necessary to take account of the introduction of civil partnership.

Six responses were received in response to the consultation carried out between 3 June and 19 July 2005. Four of the responses supported the proposals, one acknowledged that they were necessary (83% support for proposals) and one did not agree that same-sex partners should be viewed as being equivalent to marriage (17% not in support).

None of the responses suggested any changes to the amendments as proposed in the consultation. We will therefore proceed to include the amendments as proposed (with one minor change to the heading of amended regulation 28) in a statutory rule to be made in autumn of this year.