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<p>Section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 provides that civil partners
may convert their civil partnership into marriage under regulations to be made by
the Secretary of State, and that the resulting marriage will be treated as having
subsisted since the date the civil partnership was formed. Civil partnerships and
marriage are separate legal institutions so a process is required for conversion.
We are working hard to ensure that couples wanting to convert their civil partnerships
into marriages are able to do so as soon as possible. We aim to do this before the
end of 2014.</p><p>These aspects of implementing the Act take longer because they
involve developing and implementing completely new procedures and processes. This
contrasts with the work to make new marriages for same-sex couples possible, where
we were able to build on existing processes so implementation was more straightforward.</p>
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