I shall address that point later. Local authorities are able to offer couples the option of a ceremony or a celebration to mark the formation of a civil partnership and such an event, as my hon. Friend suggests, would likely include spoken words. Not every couple will want to take that up and it will be a matter for each couple to decide with the local authority and the place where they register as civil partners. Some will choose to do no more than complete the statutory registration requirements.

However—this is where I started on the issue of words and a declaration—we listened carefully both to the argument advanced in the other place and to the argument made in the House of Commons that there should be a form of words that the couple will sign when they register. We will be moving our own amendments to augment the registration procedure by extending the powers taken in the Bill that relate to the civil partnership document. That is the document that each party signs to register as the other's civil partner.

The extended powers will allow the Registrar General to make provision by regulations for a form of words to be printed on the civil partnership document. When they sign that document, the parties will be acknowledging that form of words. The Bill does not—and, indeed, could not—prevent some people from saying those words as they sign the civil partnership document. Saying the words will not be a requirement of the registration process but it will provide what hon. Members have argued for, which is the opportunity to make a statutory declaration as

they are signing the registration document, or just before.

I am willing to go further than that in attempting to convince the Committee. If necessary, guidance could be issued to civil partnership registrars stating that the verbal expression or declaration of words on the schedule, while not having legal effect, is appropriate. That would not overcome all the problems that my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda raised, but it would make clear the status of those words, which will, of course, also be on the document that the civil partners will sign.