EQUALITY NETWORK - Your Rights

06/10/2009
Hate crime
Hate crime is defined as crime motivated by malice or ill will towards a social group. There is clear evidence of hate crime against LGBT people in Scotland. Scotland currently has the least progressive law on hate crime of any part of the UK, but that will change in a few months time. more

07/10/2009
Housing
The law provides tenants with certain rights and bans discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and transsexual identity. The law also protects homeowners in some circumstances and gives some protection to homeless people. more

19/03/2008
Myself and my partner (both female) would like to foster kids but from all I'm reading and being told it seems that same sex couples in scotland are not allowed to foster in this country. Is this still the case and if so, how can we challenge this and change it? Any advice would be welcome.
In Scotland, fostering is still covered by the Fostering of Children (Scotland) Regulations 1996. The regulations will change in early 2009 when the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act becomes law. The Scottish Government ran a consultation earlier this year on the old fostering regulations, to which the Equality Network responded in March 2008. more

10/06/2009
Cohabitation
The law on cohabitation deals with the obligations and rights of two people who live together as a couple, but without registering a civil partnership or a marriage.

Background

Since the 1980s, mixed-sex couples who cohabit (that is, live together as if they were husband and wife, but without actually being married) have been granted some of the legal protections and obligations of married couples. Since 2000, these laws have gradually been extended to also apply to same-sex couples who cohabit (that is, live together as a couple but without registering a civil partnership). The Civil Partnership Act 2004, which came into effect on 5th December 2005, and the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, which came into effect on 4th May 2006, very nearly completed the job of giving same-sex cohabiting couples the same rights as mixed-sex cohabiting couples. The last inequality was in the law on fostering of children, and this inequality was removed by the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009, which came into effect on 28th September 2009.

What the law says

The law now gives same-sex cohabiting couples and mixed-sex cohabiting couples the same protections and obligations. These include:

being recognised as your partner's nearest relative, for example, under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, and the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003.
being able to take over the tenancy of your partner's rented house if they die and you were living there.
being able to claim compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme for the death of one's partner in a criminal act, and the right under the amended Damages (Scotland) Act 1976, to claim damages from a person causing the death of one's partner in a wrongful act.
protection from domestic abuse, under the amended Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981 and the Protection from Abuse (Scotland) Act 2001.
a foreign cohabiting partner of a UK citizen can usually get permission to reside with their partner in the UK, but only after they have already cohabited as a couple for two years.
if an employer gives fringe benefits to a mixed-sex cohabiting partner of an employee, the employer must give the same benefits to a same-sex cohabiting partner of an employee, under the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003.
for means-tested state benefits (income support, job seekers allowance, tax credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit, etc), both partners' incomes are taken into account in calculating the benefit. Before December 5th 2005, cohabiting same-sex couples were treated for these benefit purposes as two single people; now they are treated as a couple, and this means that some people's benefits have gone down.
under the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, a cohabiting partner can apply to court to inherit a portion of their partner's property, if their partner dies without a will.
under the same act, if a cohabiting couple split up, it is possible to apply to court for an order for financial provision from the ex-partner. The rules for this are much weaker than the 50:50 split of property that applies on dissolution of a civil partnership or on divorce - an ex cohabiting partner can only claim compensation for financial disadvantage caused by the cohabitation, and for the future financial costs of looking after a child who is the child of both cohabitants.
under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, a cohabiting partner can be named as the other parent of a child conceived by fertility treatment at a licensed fertility clinic. Under the same Act, from April 2010, a cohabiting couple in "an enduring family relationship" will be able to use a parenting order to become the parents of a child born through a surrogacy arrangement.
under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 a cohabiting couple who are in "an enduring family relationship" can apply to jointly adopt a child, and one partner can apply to adopt their partner's child.

Taken together, these legal rules are rather weaker than the protections and obligations the law gives civil partners and married couples.

More information

There is information about the rules which currently apply when a foreign same-sex or mixed-sex cohabiting partner of a UK citizen wants to live with their partner in this country, on the UK Border Agency website. It should be noted that these fairly strict rules do not apply to citizens of the European Economic Area (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein) or to citizens of Switzerland, all of whom have a much broader right to live and work in the UK.